Beam Paging Assistance

ABSTRACT

Wireless communications for paging assistance are described. Paging assistance information may comprise one or more beam parameters to provide beam-based paging for a wireless device. One or more devices may use beam-based paging to reduce usage of wireless resources.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/193,971, titled “Beam Paging Assistance” and filed on Nov. 16, 2018,now allowed, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/587,255, titled “Beam Paging Assistance Informationof Base Station” and filed on Nov. 16, 2017, and U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/587,265, titled “Paging Message with BeamInformation” and filed Nov. 16, 2017, the disclosures of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

In wireless communications, various beam procedures may be performedsuch as uplink beam management, downlink beam failure recovery, ordownlink beam management. It is desired to improve wirelesscommunications by performing various beam procedures in a more timelyand efficient manner.

SUMMARY

The following summary presents a simplified summary of certain features.The summary is not an extensive overview and is not intended to identifykey or critical elements.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for communicationsassociated with beam paging in wireless networks. A base station maysend, to a core network entity (CNE), a message indicating a contextrelease of the wireless device including paging assistance elements,such as cell ID and beam identifiers. The base station may receive, fromthe CNE, a first paging message including a wireless device ID and thepaging assistance information elements. The CNE may utilize the one ormore beam identifiers for an efficient paging procedure for paging thewireless device. If a paging message is transmitted via one or moreselected beams, the base station may be able to save radio resources fora paging procedure and reduce overhead as compared to transmittingpaging messages multiple times via all beams. An immediate response fromthe CNE may not be required based on the transmission of the pagingmessage. A base station may send paging assistance information elementsto the CNE because the base station may release the paging assistanceinformation from memory. The CNE may send the same paging assistanceinformation back to the base station which may conserve resources.

These and other features and advantages are described in greater detailbelow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Examples of several of the various embodiments of the present inventionare described herein with reference to the drawings.

Some features are shown by way of example, and not by limitation, in theaccompanying drawings. In the drawings, like numerals reference similarelements.

FIG. 1 shows example sets of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM) subcarriers.

FIG. 2 shows example transmission time and reception time for twocarriers in a carrier group.

FIG. 3 shows example OFDM radio resources.

FIG. 4 shows hardware elements of a base station and a wireless device.

FIG. 5A, FIG. 5B, FIG. 5C and FIG. 5D show examples for uplink anddownlink signal transmission.

FIG. 6 shows an example protocol structure with multi-connectivity.

FIG. 7 shows an example protocol structure with carrier aggregation (CA)and dual connectivity (DC).

FIG. 8 shows example timing advance group (TAG) configurations.

FIG. 9 shows example message flow in a random access process in asecondary TAG.

FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B show examples for interfaces between a 5G corenetwork and base stations.

FIG. 11A, FIG. 11B, FIG. 11C, FIG. 11D, FIG. 11E, and FIG. 11F showexamples for architectures of tight interworking between a 5G RAN and along term evolution (LTE) radio access network (RAN).

FIG. 12A, FIG. 12B, and FIG. 12C show examples for radio protocolstructures of tight interworking bearers.

FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B show examples for gNodeB (gNB) deployment.

FIG. 14 shows functional split option examples of a centralized gNBdeployment.

FIG. 15 shows an example of a paging message in a cell.

FIG. 16 shows an example of paging.

FIG. 17 shows an example of paging with a distributed base station.

FIG. 18A and FIG. 18B show examples of beam based paging.

FIG. 19 shows an example of sending paging messages.

FIG. 20 shows an example of sending paging messages.

FIG. 21 shows an example of sending paging messages.

FIG. 22 shows an example of sending paging messages.

FIG. 23 shows example elements of a computing device that may be used toimplement any of the various devices described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, show examples ofthe disclosure. It is to be understood that the examples shown in thedrawings and/or discussed herein are non-exclusive and that there areother examples of how the disclosure may be practiced.

Examples may relate to beam paging in multicarrier communicationsystems.

The following acronyms are used throughout the present disclosure,provided below for convenience although other acronyms may be introducedin the detailed description:

3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

5G 5th generation wireless systems

5GC 5G Core Network ACK Acknowledgement AMF Access and MobilityManagement Function

ASIC application-specific integrated circuitBPSK binary phase shift keyingCA carrier aggregationCC component carrierCDMA code division multiple accessCP cyclic prefixCPLD complex programmable logic devicesCSI channel state informationCSS common search spaceCU central unitDC dual connectivityDCI downlink control informationDFTS-OFDM discrete Fourier transform spreading OFDMDL downlinkDU distributed uniteLTE enhanced LTEeMBB enhanced mobile broadbandeNB evolved Node BEPC evolved packet coreE-UTRAN evolved-universal terrestrial radio access networkFDD frequency division multiplexingFPGA field programmable gate arraysFs-C Fs-control planeFs-U Fs-user planegNB next generation node BHARQ hybrid automatic repeat requestHDL hardware description languagesID identifierIE information elementLTE long term evolutionMAC media access controlMCG master cell groupMeNB master evolved node BMIB master information blockMME mobility management entitymMTC massive machine type communications

NACK Negative Acknowledgement

NAS non-access stratumNG CP next generation control plane coreNGC next generation coreNG-C NG-control planeNG-U NG-user planeNR MAC new radio MACNR PDCP new radio PDCPNR PHY new radio physicalNR RLC new radio RLCNR RRC new radio RRCNR new radioNSSAI network slice selection assistance informationOFDM orthogonal frequency division multiplexingPCC primary component carrierPCell primary cellPDCCH physical downlink control channelPDCP packet data convergence protocolPDU packet data unitPHICH physical HARQ indicator channelPHY physicalPLMN public land mobile networkPSCell primary secondary cellpTAG primary timing advance groupPUCCH physical uplink control channelPUSCH physical uplink shared channelQAM quadrature amplitude modulationQPSK quadrature phase shift keyingRA random accessRACH random access channelRAN radio access networkRAP random access preambleRAR random access responseRB resource blocksRBG resource block groupsRLC radio link controlRRC radio resource controlRRM radio resource managementRV redundancy versionSCC secondary component carrierSCell secondary cellSCG secondary cell groupSC-OFDM single carrier-OFDMSDU service data unitSeNB secondary evolved node BSFN system frame numberS-GW serving gatewaySIB system information blockSC-OFDM single carrier orthogonal frequency division multiplexingSRB signaling radio bearersTAG(s) secondary timing advance group(s)TA timing advanceTAG timing advance groupTAI tracking area identifierTAT time alignment timerTDD time division duplexingTDMA time division multiple accessTTI transmission time intervalTB transport blockUE user equipmentUL uplinkUPGW user plane gatewayURLLC ultra-reliable low-latency communicationsVHDL VHSIC hardware description languageXn-C Xn-control planeXn-U Xn-user planeXx-C Xx-control planeXx-U Xx-user plane

Examples may be implemented using various physical layer modulation andtransmission mechanisms. Example transmission mechanisms may include,but are not limited to: CDMA, OFDM, TDMA, Wavelet technologies, and/orthe like. Hybrid transmission mechanisms such as TDMA/CDMA, andOFDM/CDMA may also be employed. Various modulation schemes may be usedfor signal transmission in the physical layer. Examples of modulationschemes include, but are not limited to: phase, amplitude, code, acombination of these, and/or the like. An example radio transmissionmethod may implement QAM using BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM,and/or the like. Physical radio transmission may be enhanced bydynamically or semi-dynamically changing the modulation and codingscheme depending on transmission requirements and radio conditions.

FIG. 1 shows example sets of OFDM subcarriers. As shown in this example,arrow(s) in the diagram may depict a subcarrier in a multicarrier OFDMsystem. The OFDM system may use technology such as OFDM technology,DFTS-OFDM, SC-OFDM technology, or the like. For example, arrow 101 showsa subcarrier transmitting information symbols. FIG. 1 is shown as anexample, and a typical multicarrier OFDM system may include moresubcarriers in a carrier. For example, the number of subcarriers in acarrier may be in the range of 10 to 10,000 subcarriers. FIG. 1 showstwo guard bands 106 and 107 in a transmission band. As shown in FIG. 1,guard band 106 is between subcarriers 103 and subcarriers 104. Theexample set of subcarriers A 102 includes subcarriers 103 andsubcarriers 104. FIG. 1 also shows an example set of subcarriers B 105.As shown, there is no guard band between any two subcarriers in theexample set of subcarriers B 105. Carriers in a multicarrier OFDMcommunication system may be contiguous carriers, non-contiguouscarriers, or a combination of both contiguous and non-contiguouscarriers.

FIG. 2 shows an example timing arrangement with transmission time andreception time for two carriers. A multicarrier OFDM communicationsystem may include one or more carriers, for example, ranging from 1 to10 carriers. Carrier A 204 and carrier B 205 may have the same ordifferent timing structures. Although FIG. 2 shows two synchronizedcarriers, carrier A 204 and carrier B 205 may or may not be synchronizedwith each other. Different radio frame structures may be supported forFDD and TDD duplex mechanisms. FIG. 2 shows an example FDD frame timing.Downlink and uplink transmissions may be organized into radio frames201. In this example, radio frame duration is 10 milliseconds (msec).Other frame durations, for example, in the range of 1 to 100 msec mayalso be supported. In this example, each 10 msec radio frame 201 may bedivided into ten equally sized subframes 202. Other subframe durationssuch as including 0.5 msec, 1 msec, 2 msec, and 5 msec may also besupported. Subframe(s) may include two or more slots (e.g., slots 206and 207). For the example of FDD, 10 subframes may be available fordownlink transmission and 10 subframes may be available for uplinktransmissions in each 10 msec interval. Uplink and downlinktransmissions may be separated in the frequency domain. A slot may be 7or 14 OFDM symbols for the same subcarrier spacing of up to 60 kHz withnormal CP. A slot may be 14 OFDM symbols for the same subcarrier spacinghigher than 60 kHz with normal CP. A slot may include all downlink, alluplink, or a downlink part and an uplink part, and/or alike. Slotaggregation may be supported, for example, data transmission may bescheduled to span one or multiple slots. For example, a mini-slot maystart at an OFDM symbol in a subframe. A mini-slot may have a durationof one or more OFDM symbols. Slot(s) may include a plurality of OFDMsymbols 203. The number of OFDM symbols 203 in a slot 206 may depend onthe cyclic prefix length and subcarrier spacing.

FIG. 3 shows an example of OFDM radio resources. The resource gridstructure in time 304 and frequency 305 is shown in FIG. 3. The quantityof downlink subcarriers or RBs may depend, at least in part, on thedownlink transmission bandwidth 306 configured in the cell. The smallestradio resource unit may be called a resource element (e.g., 301).Resource elements may be grouped into resource blocks (e.g., 302).Resource blocks may be grouped into larger radio resources calledResource Block Groups (RBG) (e.g., 303). The transmitted signal in slot206 may be described by one or several resource grids of a plurality ofsubcarriers and a plurality of OFDM symbols. Resource blocks may be usedto describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resourceelements. Other pre-defined groupings of physical resource elements maybe implemented in the system depending on the radio technology. Forexample, 24 subcarriers may be grouped as a radio block for a durationof 5 msec. A resource block may correspond to one slot in the timedomain and 180 kHz in the frequency domain (for 15 kHz subcarrierbandwidth and 12 subcarriers).

Multiple numerologies may be supported. A numerology may be derived byscaling a basic subcarrier spacing by an integer N. Scalable numerologymay allow at least from 15 kHz to 480 kHz subcarrier spacing. Thenumerology with 15 kHz and scaled numerology with different subcarrierspacing with the same CP overhead may align at a symbol boundary every 1msec in a NR carrier.

FIG. 4 shows hardware elements of a base station 401 and a wirelessdevice 406. A communication network 400 may include at least one basestation 401 and at least one wireless device 406. The base station 401may include at least one communication interface 402, one or moreprocessors 403, and at least one set of program code instructions 405stored in non-transitory memory 404 and executable by the one or moreprocessors 403. The wireless device 406 may include at least onecommunication interface 407, one or more processors 408, and at leastone set of program code instructions 410 stored in non-transitory memory409 and executable by the one or more processors 408. A communicationinterface 402 in the base station 401 may be configured to engage incommunication with a communication interface 407 in the wireless device406, such as via a communication path that includes at least onewireless link 411. The wireless link 411 may be a bi-directional link.The communication interface 407 in the wireless device 406 may also beconfigured to engage in communication with the communication interface402 in the base station 401. The base station 401 and the wirelessdevice 406 may be configured to send and receive data over the wirelesslink 411 using multiple frequency carriers. Base stations, wirelessdevices, and other communication devices may include structure andoperations of transceiver(s). A transceiver is a device that includesboth a transmitter and receiver. Transceivers may be employed in devicessuch as wireless devices, base stations, relay nodes, and/or the like.Examples for radio technology implemented in the communicationinterfaces 402, 407 and the wireless link 411 are shown in FIG. 1, FIG.2, FIG. 3, FIG. 5, and associated text. The communication network 400may comprise any number and/or type of devices, such as, for example,computing devices, wireless devices, mobile devices, handsets, tablets,laptops, internet of things (IoT) devices, hotspots, cellular repeaters,computing devices, and/or, more generally, user equipment (e.g., UE).Although one or more of the above types of devices may be referencedherein (e.g., UE, wireless device, computing device, etc.), it should beunderstood that any device herein may comprise any one or more of theabove types of devices or similar devices. The communication network400, and any other network referenced herein, may comprise an LTEnetwork, a 5G network, or any other network for wireless communications.Apparatuses, systems, and/or methods described herein may generally bedescribed as implemented on one or more devices (e.g., wireless device,base station, eNB, gNB, computing device, etc.), in one or morenetworks, but it will be understood that one or more features and stepsmay be implemented on any device and/or in any network. As usedthroughout, the term “base station” may comprise one or more of: a basestation, a node, a Node B, a gNB, an eNB, an ng-eNB, a relay node (e.g.,an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node), a donor node (e.g., adonor eNB, a donor gNB, etc.), an access point (e.g., a WiFi accesspoint), a computing device, a device capable of wirelesslycommunicating, or any other device capable of sending and/or receivingsignals. As used throughout, the term “wireless device” may comprise oneor more of: a UE, a handset, a mobile device, a computing device, anode, a device capable of wirelessly communicating, or any other devicecapable of sending and/or receiving signals. Any reference to one ormore of these terms/devices also considers use of any other term/devicementioned above.

The communications network 400 may comprise Radio Access Network (RAN)architecture. The RAN architecture may comprise one or more RAN nodesthat may be a next generation Node B (gNB) (e.g., 401) providing NewRadio (NR) user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards afirst wireless device (e.g. 406). A RAN node may be a next generationevolved Node B (ng-eNB), providing Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access(E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards asecond wireless device. The first wireless device may communicate with agNB over a Uu interface. The second wireless device may communicate witha ng-eNB over a Uu interface. Base station 401 may comprise one or moreof a gNB, ng-eNB, and/or the like.

A gNB or an ng-eNB may host functions such as: radio resource managementand scheduling, IP header compression, encryption and integrityprotection of data, selection of Access and Mobility Management Function(AMF) at User Equipment (UE) attachment, routing of user plane andcontrol plane data, connection setup and release, scheduling andtransmission of paging messages (originated from the AMF), schedulingand transmission of system broadcast information (originated from theAMF or Operation and Maintenance (O&M)), measurement and measurementreporting configuration, transport level packet marking in the uplink,session management, support of network slicing, Quality of Service (QoS)flow management and mapping to data radio bearers, support of wirelessdevices in RRC_INACTIVE state, distribution function for Non-AccessStratum (NAS) messages, RAN sharing, and dual connectivity or tightinterworking between NR and E-UTRA.

One or more gNBs and/or one or more ng-eNBs may be interconnected witheach other by means of Xn interface. A gNB or an ng-eNB may be connectedby means of NG interfaces to 5G Core Network (5GC). 5GC may comprise oneor more AMF/User Plane Function (UPF) functions. A gNB or an ng-eNB maybe connected to a UPF by means of an NG-User plane (NG-U) interface. TheNG-U interface may provide delivery (e.g., non-guaranteed delivery) ofuser plane Protocol Data Units (PDUs) between a RAN node and the UPF. AgNB or an ng-eNB may be connected to an AMF by means of an NG-Controlplane (e.g., NG-C) interface. The NG-C interface may provide functionssuch as NG interface management, UE context management, UE mobilitymanagement, transport of NAS messages, paging, PDU session management,configuration transfer or warning message transmission.

A UPF may host functions such as anchor point for intra-/inter-RadioAccess Technology (RAT) mobility (if applicable), external PDU sessionpoint of interconnect to data network, packet routing and forwarding,packet inspection and user plane part of policy rule enforcement,traffic usage reporting, uplink classifier to support routing trafficflows to a data network, branching point to support multi-homed PDUsession, QoS handling for user plane, for example, packet filtering,gating, Uplink (UL)/Downlink (DL) rate enforcement, uplink trafficverification (e.g. Service Data Flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping),downlink packet buffering and/or downlink data notification triggering.

An AMF may host functions such as NAS signaling termination, NASsignaling security, Access Stratum (AS) security control, inter CoreNetwork (CN) node signaling for mobility between 3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) access networks, idle mode UE reachability(e.g., control and execution of paging retransmission), registrationarea management, support of intra-system and inter-system mobility,access authentication, access authorization including check of roamingrights, mobility management control (subscription and policies), supportof network slicing and/or Session Management Function (SMF) selection

An interface may be a hardware interface, a firmware interface, asoftware interface, and/or a combination thereof. The hardware interfacemay include connectors, wires, electronic devices such as drivers,amplifiers, and/or the like. A software interface may include codestored in a memory device to implement protocol(s), protocol layers,communication drivers, device drivers, combinations thereof, and/or thelike. A firmware interface may include a combination of embeddedhardware and code stored in and/or in communication with a memory deviceto implement connections, electronic device operations, protocol(s),protocol layers, communication drivers, device drivers, hardwareoperations, combinations thereof, and/or the like.

The term configured may relate to the capacity of a device whether thedevice is in an operational or a non-operational state. Configured mayalso refer to specific settings in a device that effect the operationalcharacteristics of the device whether the device is in an operational ora non-operational state. In other words, the hardware, software,firmware, registers, memory values, and/or the like may be “configured”within a device, whether the device is in an operational or anonoperational state, to provide the device with specificcharacteristics. Terms such as “a control message to cause in a device”may mean that a control message has parameters that may be used toconfigure specific characteristics in the device, whether the device isin an operational or a non-operational state.

A network may include a multitude of base stations, providing a userplane NR PDCP/NR RLC/NR MAC/NR PHY and control plane (e.g., NR RRC)protocol terminations towards the wireless device. The base station(s)may be interconnected with other base station(s) (e.g., employing an Xninterface). The base stations may also be connected employing, forexample, an NG interface to an NGC. FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B show examplesfor interfaces between a 5G core network (e.g., NGC) and base stations(e.g., gNB and eLTE eNB). For example, the base stations may beinterconnected to the NGC control plane (e.g., NG CP) employing the NG-Cinterface and to the NGC user plane (e.g., UPGW) employing the NG-Uinterface. The NG interface may support a many-to-many relation between5G core networks and base stations.

A base station may include many sectors, for example: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6sectors. A base station may include many cells, for example, rangingfrom 1 to 50 cells or more. A cell may be categorized, for example, as aprimary cell or secondary cell. At RRC connectionestablishment/re-establishment/handover, one serving cell may providethe NAS (non-access stratum) mobility information (e.g., TAI), and atRRC connection re-establishment/handover, one serving cell may providethe security input. This cell may be referred to as the Primary Cell(PCell). In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell may bethe Downlink Primary Component Carrier (DL PCC); in the uplink, thecarrier corresponding to the PCell may be the Uplink Primary ComponentCarrier (UL PCC). Depending on wireless device capabilities, SecondaryCells (SCells) may be configured to form together with the PCell a setof serving cells. In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to an SCellmay be a Downlink Secondary Component Carrier (DL SCC); in the uplink,the carrier corresponding to an SCell may be an Uplink SecondaryComponent Carrier (UL SCC). An SCell may or may not have an uplinkcarrier.

A cell, comprising a downlink carrier and optionally an uplink carrier,may be assigned a physical cell ID and a cell index. A carrier (downlinkor uplink) may belong to only one cell. The cell ID or cell index mayalso identify the downlink carrier or uplink carrier of the cell(depending on the context in which it is used). The cell ID may beequally referred to a carrier ID, and cell index may be referred tocarrier index. In implementation, the physical cell ID or cell index maybe assigned to a cell. A cell ID may be determined using asynchronization signal transmitted on a downlink carrier. A cell indexmay be determined using RRC messages. For example, reference to a firstphysical cell ID for a first downlink carrier may indicate that thefirst physical cell ID is for a cell comprising the first downlinkcarrier. The same concept may apply to, for example, carrier activation.Reference to a first carrier that is activated may indicate that thecell comprising the first carrier is activated.

A device may be configured to operate as needed by freely combining anyof the examples. The disclosed mechanisms may be performed if certaincriteria are met, for example, in a wireless device, a base station, aradio environment, a network, a combination of the above, and/or thelike. Example criteria may be based, at least in part, on for example,traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, trafficcharacteristics, a combination of the above, and/or the like. One ormore criteria may be satisfied. It may be possible to implement examplesthat selectively implement disclosed protocols.

A base station may communicate with a variety of wireless devices.Wireless devices may support multiple technologies, and/or multiplereleases of the same technology. Wireless devices may have some specificcapability(ies) depending on its wireless device category and/orcapability(ies). A base station may comprise multiple sectors. Referenceto a base station communicating with a plurality of wireless devices mayindicate that a base station may communicate with a subset of the totalwireless devices in a coverage area. A plurality of wireless devices ofa given LTE or 5G release, with a given capability and in a given sectorof the base station, may be used. The plurality of wireless devices mayrefer to a selected plurality of wireless devices, and/or a subset oftotal wireless devices in a coverage area which perform according todisclosed methods, and/or the like. There may be a plurality of wirelessdevices in a coverage area that may not comply with the disclosedmethods, for example, because those wireless devices perform based onolder releases of LTE or 5G technology.

A base station may transmit (e.g., to a wireless device) one or moremessages (e.g. RRC messages) that may comprise a plurality ofconfiguration parameters for one or more cells. One or more cells maycomprise at least one primary cell and at least one secondary cell. AnRRC message may be broadcasted or unicasted to the wireless device.Configuration parameters may comprise common parameters and dedicatedparameters.

Services and/or functions of an RRC sublayer may comprise at least oneof: broadcast of system information related to AS and NAS; paginginitiated by 5GC and/or NG-RAN; establishment, maintenance, and/orrelease of an RRC connection between a wireless device and NG-RAN, whichmay comprise at least one of addition, modification and release ofcarrier aggregation; or addition, modification, and/or release of dualconnectivity in NR or between E-UTRA and NR. Services and/or functionsof an RRC sublayer may further comprise at least one of securityfunctions comprising key management; establishment, configuration,maintenance, and/or release of Signaling Radio Bearers (SRBs) and/orData Radio Bearers (DRBs); mobility functions which may comprise atleast one of a handover (e.g. intra NR mobility or inter-RAT mobility)and a context transfer; or a wireless device cell selection andreselection and control of cell selection and reselection. Servicesand/or functions of an RRC sublayer may further comprise at least one ofQoS management functions; a wireless device measurementconfiguration/reporting; detection of and/or recovery from radio linkfailure; or NAS message transfer to/from a core network entity (e.g.AMF, Mobility Management Entity (MME)) from/to the wireless device.

An RRC sublayer may support an RRC_Idle state, an RRC_Inactive stateand/or an RRC_Connected state for a wireless device. In an RRC_Idlestate, a wireless device may perform at least one of: Public Land MobileNetwork (PLMN) selection; receiving broadcasted system information; cellselection/re-selection; monitoring/receiving a paging for mobileterminated data initiated by 5GC; paging for mobile terminated data areamanaged by 5GC; or DRx for CN paging configured via NAS. In anRRC_Inactive state, a wireless device may perform at least one of:receiving broadcasted system information; cell selection/re-selection;monitoring/receiving a RAN/CN paging initiated by NG-RAN/5GC; RAN-basednotification area (RNA) managed by NG-RAN; or DRx for RAN/CN pagingconfigured by NG-RAN/NAS. In an RRC_Idle state of a wireless device, abase station (e.g. NG-RAN) may keep a 5GC-NG-RAN connection (bothC/U-planes) for the wireless device; and/or store a UE AS context forthe wireless device. In an RRC_Connected state of a wireless device, abase station (e.g. NG-RAN) may perform at least one of: establishment of5GC-NG-RAN connection (both C/U-planes) for the wireless device; storinga UE AS context for the wireless device; transmit/receive of unicastdata to/from the wireless device; or network-controlled mobility basedon measurement results received from the wireless device. In anRRC_Connected state of a wireless device, an NG-RAN may know a cell thatthe wireless device belongs to.

System information (SI) may be divided into minimum SI and other SI. Theminimum SI may be periodically broadcast. The minimum SI may comprisebasic information required for initial access and information foracquiring any other SI broadcast periodically or provisioned on-demand,e.g. scheduling information. The other SI may either be broadcast, or beprovisioned in a dedicated manner, either triggered by a network or uponrequest from a wireless device. A minimum SI may be transmitted via twodifferent downlink channels using different messages (e.g.MasterInformationBlock and SystemInformationBlockType1). The other SImay be transmitted via SystemInformationBlockType2. For a wirelessdevice in an RRC_Connected state, dedicated RRC signaling may beemployed for the request and delivery of the other SI. For the wirelessdevice in the RRC_Idle state and/or the RRC_Inactive state, the requestmay trigger a random-access procedure.

A wireless device may send its radio access capability information whichmay be static. A base station may request what capabilities for awireless device to report based on band information. If allowed by anetwork, a temporary capability restriction request may be sent by thewireless device to signal the limited availability of some capabilities(e.g. due to hardware sharing, interference or overheating) to the basestation. The base station may confirm or reject the request. Thetemporary capability restriction may be transparent to 5GC (e.g., staticcapabilities may be stored in 5GC).

If CA is configured, a wireless device may have an RRC connection with anetwork. At RRC connection establishment/re-establishment/handoverprocedure, one serving cell may provide NAS mobility information, and atRRC connection re-establishment/handover, one serving cell may provide asecurity input. This cell may be referred to as the PCell. Depending onthe capabilities of the wireless device, SCells may be configured toform together with the PCell a set of serving cells. The configured setof serving cells for the wireless device may comprise one PCell and oneor more SCells.

The reconfiguration, addition and removal of SCells may be performed byRRC. At intra-NR handover, RRC may also add, remove, or reconfigureSCells for usage with the target PCell. If adding a new SCell, dedicatedRRC signaling may be employed to send all required system information ofthe SCell. In connected mode, wireless devices may not need to acquirebroadcasted system information directly from the SCells.

An RRC connection reconfiguration procedure may be used to modify an RRCconnection, (e.g. to establish, modify and/or release RBs, to performhandover, to setup, modify, and/or release measurements, to add, modify,and/or release SCells and cell groups). As part of the RRC connectionreconfiguration procedure, NAS dedicated information may be transferredfrom the network to the wireless device. TheRRCConnectionReconfiguration message may be a command to modify an RRCconnection. It may convey information for measurement configuration,mobility control, radio resource configuration (e.g. RBs, MAC mainconfiguration and physical channel configuration) comprising anyassociated dedicated NAS information and security configuration. If thereceived RRC Connection Reconfiguration message includes thesCellToReleaseList, the wireless device may perform an SCell release. Ifthe received RRC Connection Reconfiguration message includes thesCellToAddModList, the wireless device may perform SCell additions ormodification.

An RRC connection establishment (or reestablishment, resume) proceduremay be used to establish (or reestablish, resume) an RRC connection. AnRRC connection establishment procedure may comprise SRB1 establishment.The RRC connection establishment procedure may be used to transfer theinitial NAS dedicated information message from a wireless device toE-UTRAN. The RRCConnectionReestablishment message may be used tore-establish SRB1.

A measurement report procedure may be to transfer measurement resultsfrom a wireless device to NG-RAN. The wireless device may initiate ameasurement report procedure, for example, after successful securityactivation. A measurement report message may be employed to transmitmeasurement results.

FIG. 5A, FIG. 5B, FIG. 5C, and FIG. 5D show examples of architecture foruplink and downlink signal transmission. FIG. 5A shows an example for anuplink physical channel. The baseband signal representing the physicaluplink shared channel may be processed according to the followingprocesses, which may be performed by structures described below. Thesestructures and corresponding functions are shown as examples, however,it is anticipated that other structures and/or functions may beimplemented in various examples. The structures and correspondingfunctions may comprise, for example, one or more scrambling devices 501Aand 501B configured to perform scrambling of coded bits in each of thecodewords to be transmitted on a physical channel; one or moremodulation mappers 502A and 502B configured to perform modulation ofscrambled bits to generate complex-valued symbols; a layer mapper 503configured to perform mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbolsonto one or several transmission layers; one or more transform precoders504A and 504B to generate complex-valued symbols; a precoding device 505configured to perform precoding of the complex-valued symbols; one ormore resource element mappers 506A and 506B configured to performmapping of precoded complex-valued symbols to resource elements; one ormore signal generators 507A and 507B configured to perform thegeneration of a complex-valued time-domain DFTS-OFDM/SC-FDMA signal foreach antenna port; and/or the like.

FIG. 5B shows an example for performing modulation and up-conversion tothe carrier frequency of the complex-valued DFTS-OFDM/SC-FDMA basebandsignal, for example, for each antenna port and/or for the complex-valuedphysical random access channel (PRACH) baseband signal. For example, thebaseband signal, represented as s₁(t), may be split, by a signalsplitter 510, into real and imaginary components, Re{s₁(t)} andIm{s₁(t)}, respectively. The real component may be modulated by amodulator 511A, and the imaginary component may be modulated by amodulator 511B. The output signal of the modulator 511A and the outputsignal of the modulator 511B may be mixed by a mixer 512. The outputsignal of the mixer 512 may be input to a filtering device 513, andfiltering may be employed by the filtering device 513 prior totransmission.

FIG. 5C shows an example structure for downlink transmissions. Thebaseband signal representing a downlink physical channel may beprocessed by the following processes, which may be performed bystructures described below. These structures and corresponding functionsare shown as examples, however, it is anticipated that other structuresand/or functions may be implemented in various examples. The structuresand corresponding functions may comprise, for example, one or morescrambling devices 531A and 531B configured to perform scrambling ofcoded bits in each of the codewords to be transmitted on a physicalchannel; one or more modulation mappers 532A and 532B configured toperform modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valuedmodulation symbols; a layer mapper 533 configured to perform mapping ofthe complex-valued modulation symbols onto one or several transmissionlayers; a precoding device 534 configured to perform precoding of thecomplex-valued modulation symbols on each layer for transmission on theantenna ports; one or more resource element mappers 535A and 535Bconfigured to perform mapping of complex-valued modulation symbols foreach antenna port to resource elements; one or more OFDM signalgenerators 536A and 536B configured to perform the generation ofcomplex-valued time-domain OFDM signal for each antenna port; and/or thelike.

FIG. 5D shows an example structure for modulation and up-conversion tothe carrier frequency of the complex-valued OFDM baseband signal foreach antenna port. For example, the baseband signal, represented as s₁^((p))(t), may be split, by a signal splitter 520, into real andimaginary components, Re{s₁ ^((p))(t)} and Im{s₁ ^((p))(t)},respectively. The real component may be modulated by a modulator 521A,and the imaginary component may be modulated by a modulator 521B. Theoutput signal of the modulator 521A and the output signal of themodulator 521B may be mixed by a mixer 522. The output signal of themixer 522 may be input to a filtering device 523, and filtering may beemployed by the filtering device 523 prior to transmission.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 show examples for protocol structures with CA andmulti-connectivity. NR may support multi-connectivity operation, wherebya multiple receiver/transmitter (Rx/Tx) wireless device in RRC_CONNECTEDmay be configured to utilize radio resources provided by multipleschedulers located in multiple gNBs connected via a non-ideal or idealbackhaul over the Xn interface. gNBs involved in multi-connectivity fora certain wireless device may assume two different roles: a gNB mayeither act as a master gNB (e.g., 600) or as a secondary gNB (e.g., 610or 620). In multi-connectivity, a wireless device may be connected toone master gNB (e.g., 600) and one or more secondary gNBs (e.g., 610and/or 620). Any one or more of the Master gNB 600 and/or the secondarygNBs 610 and 620 may be a Next Generation (NG) NodeB. The master gNB 600may comprise protocol layers NR MAC 601, NR RLC 602 and 603, and NR PDCP604 and 605. The secondary gNB may comprise protocol layers NR MAC 611,NR RLC 612 and 613, and NR PDCP 614. The secondary gNB may compriseprotocol layers NR MAC 621, NR RLC 622 and 623, and NR PDCP 624. Themaster gNB 600 may communicate via an interface 606 and/or via aninterface 607, the secondary gNB 610 may communicate via an interface615, and the secondary gNB 620 may communicate via an interface 625. Themaster gNB 600 may also communicate with the secondary gNB 610 and thesecondary gNB 621 via interfaces 608 and 609, respectively, which mayinclude Xn interfaces. For example, the master gNB 600 may communicatevia the interface 608, at layer NR PDCP 605, and with the secondary gNB610 at layer NR RLC 612. The master gNB 600 may communicate via theinterface 609, at layer NR PDCP 605, and with the secondary gNB 620 atlayer NR RLC 622.

FIG. 7 shows an example structure for the UE side MAC entities, forexample, if a Master Cell Group (MCG) and a Secondary Cell Group (SCG)are configured. Media Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) reception maybe included but is not shown in this figure for simplicity.

In multi-connectivity, the radio protocol architecture that a particularbearer uses may depend on how the bearer is set up. As an example, threealternatives may exist, an MCG bearer, an SCG bearer, and a splitbearer, such as shown in FIG. 6. NR RRC may be located in a master gNBand SRBs may be configured as a MCG bearer type and may use the radioresources of the master gNB. Multi-connectivity may have at least onebearer configured to use radio resources provided by the secondary gNB.Multi-connectivity may or may not be configured or implemented.

For multi-connectivity, the wireless device may be configured withmultiple NR MAC entities: e.g., one NR MAC entity for a master gNB, andother NR MAC entities for secondary gNBs. In multi-connectivity, theconfigured set of serving cells for a wireless device may comprise twosubsets: e.g., the Master Cell Group (MCG) including the serving cellsof the master gNB, and the Secondary Cell Groups (SCGs) including theserving cells of the secondary gNBs.

At least one cell in a SCG may have a configured UL component carrier(CC) and one of the UL CCs, for example, named PSCell (or PCell of SCG,or sometimes called PCell), may be configured with PUCCH resources. Ifthe SCG is configured, there may be at least one SCG bearer or one splitbearer. If a physical layer problem or a random access problem on aPSCell occurs or is detected, if the maximum number of NR RLCretransmissions has been reached associated with the SCG, or if anaccess problem on a PSCell during a SCG addition or a SCG change occursor is detected, then an RRC connection re-establishment procedure maynot be triggered, UL transmissions towards cells of the SCG may bestopped, a master gNB may be informed by the wireless device of a SCGfailure type, and for a split bearer the DL data transfer over themaster gNB may be maintained. The NR RLC Acknowledge Mode (AM) bearermay be configured for the split bearer. Like the PCell, a PSCell may notbe de-activated. The PSCell may be changed with an SCG change (e.g.,with a security key change and a RACH procedure). A direct bearer typemay change between a split bearer and an SCG bearer, or a simultaneousconfiguration of an SCG and a split bearer may or may not be supported.

A master gNB and secondary gNBs may interact for multi-connectivity. Themaster gNB may maintain the RRM measurement configuration of thewireless device, and the master gNB may, (e.g., based on receivedmeasurement reports, and/or based on traffic conditions and/or bearertypes), decide to ask a secondary gNB to provide additional resources(e.g., serving cells) for a wireless device. If a request from themaster gNB is received, a secondary gNB may create a container that mayresult in the configuration of additional serving cells for the wirelessdevice (or the secondary gNB decide that it has no resource available todo so). For wireless device capability coordination, the master gNB mayprovide some or all of the Active Set (AS) configuration and thewireless device capabilities to the secondary gNB. The master gNB andthe secondary gNB may exchange information about a wireless deviceconfiguration, such as by employing NR RRC containers (e.g., inter-nodemessages) carried in Xn messages. The secondary gNB may initiate areconfiguration of its existing serving cells (e.g., PUCCH towards thesecondary gNB). The secondary gNB may decide which cell is the PSCellwithin the SCG. The master gNB may or may not change the content of theNR RRC configuration provided by the secondary gNB. In an SCG additionand an SCG SCell addition, the master gNB may provide the latestmeasurement results for the SCG cell(s). Both a master gNB and asecondary gNBs may know the system frame number (SFN) and subframeoffset of each other by operations, administration, and maintenance(OAM) (e.g., for the purpose of discontinuous reception (DRx) alignmentand identification of a measurement gap). If adding a new SCG SCell,dedicated NR RRC signaling may be used for sending required systeminformation of the cell for CA, except, for example, for the SFNacquired from an MIB of the PSCell of an SCG.

FIG. 7 shows an example of dual-connectivity (DC) for two MAC entitiesat a wireless device side. A first MAC entity may comprise a lower layerof an MCG 700, an upper layer of an MCG 718, and one or moreintermediate layers of an MCG 719. The lower layer of the MCG 700 maycomprise, for example, a paging channel (PCH) 701, a broadcast channel(BCH) 702, a downlink shared channel (DL-SCH) 703, an uplink sharedchannel (UL-SCH) 704, and a random access channel (RACH) 705. The one ormore intermediate layers of the MCG 719 may comprise, for example, oneor more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes 706, one ormore random access control processes 707, multiplexing and/orde-multiplexing processes 709, logical channel prioritization on theuplink processes 710, and a control processes 708 providing control forthe above processes in the one or more intermediate layers of the MCG719. The upper layer of the MCG 718 may comprise, for example, a pagingcontrol channel (PCCH) 711, a broadcast control channel (BCCH) 712, acommon control channel (CCCH) 713, a dedicated control channel (DCCH)714, a dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) 715, and a MAC control 716.

A second MAC entity may comprise a lower layer of an SCG 720, an upperlayer of an SCG 738, and one or more intermediate layers of an SCG 739.The lower layer of the SCG 720 may comprise, for example, a BCH 722, aDL-SCH 723, an UL-SCH 724, and a RACH 725. The one or more intermediatelayers of the SCG 739 may comprise, for example, one or more HARQprocesses 726, one or more random access control processes 727,multiplexing and/or de-multiplexing processes 729, logical channelprioritization on the uplink processes 730, and a control processes 728providing control for the above processes in the one or moreintermediate layers of the SCG 739. The upper layer of the SCG 738 maycomprise, for example, a BCCH 732, a DCCH 714, a DTCH 735, and a MACcontrol 736.

Serving cells may be grouped in a TA group (TAG). Serving cells in oneTAG may use the same timing reference. For a given TAG, a wirelessdevice may use at least one downlink carrier as a timing reference. Fora given TAG, a wireless device may synchronize uplink subframe and frametransmission timing of uplink carriers belonging to the same TAG.Serving cells having an uplink to which the same TA applies maycorrespond to serving cells hosted by the same receiver. A wirelessdevice supporting multiple TAs may support two or more TA groups. One TAgroup may include the PCell and may be called a primary TAG (pTAG). In amultiple TAG configuration, at least one TA group may not include thePCell and may be called a secondary TAG (sTAG). Carriers within the sameTA group may use the same TA value and/or the same timing reference. IfDC is configured, cells belonging to a cell group (e.g., MCG or SCG) maybe grouped into multiple TAGs including a pTAG and one or more sTAGs.

FIG. 8 shows example TAG configurations. In Example 1, a pTAG comprisesa PCell, and an sTAG comprises an SCell1. In Example 2, a pTAG comprisesa PCell and an SCell1, and an sTAG comprises an SCell2 and an SCell3. InExample 3, a pTAG comprises a PCell and an SCell1, and an sTAG1comprises an SCell2 and an SCell3, and an sTAG2 comprises a SCell4. Upto four TAGs may be supported in a cell group (MCG or SCG), and otherexample TAG configurations may also be provided. In various examples,structures and operations are described for use with a pTAG and an sTAG.Some of the examples may be used for configurations with multiple sTAGs.

An eNB may initiate an RA procedure, via a PDCCH order, for an activatedSCell. The PDCCH order may be sent on a scheduling cell of this SCell.If cross carrier scheduling is configured for a cell, the schedulingcell may be different than the cell that is employed for preambletransmission, and the PDCCH order may include an SCell index. At least anon-contention based RA procedure may be supported for SCell(s) assignedto sTAG(s).

FIG. 9 shows an example of random access processes, and a correspondingmessage flow, in a secondary TAG. A base station, such as an eNB, maytransmit an activation command 900 to a wireless device, such as a UE.The activation command 900 may be transmitted to activate an SCell. Thebase station may also transmit a PDDCH order 901 to the wireless device,which may be transmitted, for example, after the activation command 900.The wireless device may begin to perform a RACH process for the SCell,which may be initiated, for example, after receiving the PDDCH order901. A wireless device may transmit to the base station (e.g., as partof a RACH process) a preamble 902 (e.g., Msg1), such as a random accesspreamble (RAP). The preamble 902 may be transmitted after or based onthe PDCCH order 901. The wireless device may transmit the preamble 902via an SCell belonging to an sTAG. Preamble transmission for SCells maybe controlled by a network using PDCCH format 1A. The base station maysend a random access response (RAR) 903 (e.g., Msg2 message) to thewireless device. The RAR 903 may be after or based on the preamble 902transmission via the SCell. The RAR 903 may be addressed to a randomaccess radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) in a PCell commonsearch space (CSS). If the wireless device receives the RAR 903, theRACH process may conclude. The RACH process may conclude, for example,after or based on the wireless device receiving the RAR 903 from thebase station. After the RACH process, the wireless device may transmitan uplink transmission 904. The uplink transmission 904 may compriseuplink packets transmitted via the same SCell used for the preamble 902transmission.

Timing alignment (e.g., initial timing alignment) for communicationsbetween the wireless device and the base station may be performedthrough a random access procedure, such as described above regardingFIG. 9. The random access procedure may involve a wireless device, suchas a UE, transmitting a random access preamble and a base station, suchas an eNB, responding with an initial TA command NTA (amount of timingadvance) within a random access response window. The start of the randomaccess preamble may be aligned with the start of a corresponding uplinksubframe at the wireless device assuming NTA=0. The eNB may estimate theuplink timing from the random access preamble transmitted by thewireless device. The TA command may be derived by the eNB based on theestimation of the difference between the desired UL timing and theactual UL timing. The wireless device may determine the initial uplinktransmission timing relative to the corresponding downlink of the sTAGon which the preamble is transmitted.

The mapping of a serving cell to a TAG may be configured by a servingeNB with RRC signaling. The mechanism for TAG configuration andreconfiguration may be based on RRC signaling. If an eNB performs anSCell addition configuration, the related TAG configuration may beconfigured for the SCell. An eNB may modify the TAG configuration of anSCell by removing (e.g., releasing) the SCell and adding (e.g.,configuring) a new SCell (with the same physical cell ID and frequency)with an updated TAG ID. The new SCell with the updated TAG ID mayinitially be inactive subsequent to being assigned the updated TAG ID.The eNB may activate the updated new SCell and start scheduling packetson the activated SCell. In some examples, it may not be possible tochange the TAG associated with an SCell, but rather, the SCell may needto be removed and a new SCell may need to be added with another TAG. Forexample, if there is a need to move an SCell from an sTAG to a pTAG, atleast one RRC message, such as at least one RRC reconfiguration message,may be sent to the wireless device. The at least one RRC message may besent to the wireless device to reconfigure TAG configurations, forexample, by releasing the SCell and configuring the SCell as a part ofthe pTAG. If, for example, an SCell is added or configured without a TAGindex, the SCell may be explicitly assigned to the pTAG. The PCell maynot change its TA group and may be a member of the pTAG.

In LTE Release-10 and Release-11 CA, a PUCCH transmission is onlytransmitted on a PCell (e.g., a PSCell) to an eNB. In LTE-Release 12 andearlier, a wireless device may transmit PUCCH information on one cell(e.g., a PCell or a PSCell) to a given eNB. As the number of CA capablewireless devices increase, and as the number of aggregated carriersincrease, the number of PUCCHs and the PUCCH payload size may increase.Accommodating the PUCCH transmissions on the PCell may lead to a highPUCCH load on the PCell. A PUCCH on an SCell may be used to offload thePUCCH resource from the PCell. More than one PUCCH may be configured.For example, a PUCCH on a PCell may be configured and another PUCCH onan SCell may be configured. One, two, or more cells may be configuredwith PUCCH resources for transmitting CSI, acknowledgment (ACK), and/ornon-acknowledgment (NACK) to a base station. Cells may be grouped intomultiple PUCCH groups, and one or more cell within a group may beconfigured with a PUCCH. In some examples, one SCell may belong to onePUCCH group. SCells with a configured PUCCH transmitted to a basestation may be called a PUCCH SCell, and a cell group with a commonPUCCH resource transmitted to the same base station may be called aPUCCH group.

A MAC entity may have a configurable timer, for example,timeAlignmentTimer, per TAG. The timeAlignmentTimer may be used tocontrol how long the MAC entity considers the serving cells belonging tothe associated TAG to be uplink time aligned. If a Timing AdvanceCommand MAC control element is received, the MAC entity may apply theTiming Advance Command for the indicated TAG; and/or the MAC entity maystart or restart the timeAlignmentTimer associated with a TAG that maybe indicated by the Timing Advance Command MAC control element. If aTiming Advance Command is received in a Random Access Response messagefor a serving cell belonging to a TAG, the MAC entity may apply theTiming Advance Command for this TAG and/or start or restart thetimeAlignmentTimer associated with this TAG. Additionally oralternatively, if the Random Access Preamble is not selected by the MACentity, the MAC entity may apply the Timing Advance Command for this TAGand/or start or restart the timeAlignmentTimer associated with this TAG.If the timeAlignmentTimer associated with this TAG is not running, theTiming Advance Command for this TAG may be applied, and thetimeAlignmentTimer associated with this TAG may be started. If thecontention resolution is not successful, a timeAlignmentTimer associatedwith this TAG may be stopped. If the contention resolution issuccessful, the MAC entity may ignore the received Timing AdvanceCommand. The MAC entity may determine whether the contention resolutionis successful or whether the contention resolution is not successful.

FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B show examples for interfaces between a 5G corenetwork (e.g., NGC) and base stations (e.g., gNB and eLTE eNB). A basestation, such as a gNB 1020, may be interconnected to an NGC 1010control plane employing an NG-C interface. The base station, forexample, the gNB 1020, may also be interconnected to an NGC 1010 userplane (e.g., UPGW) employing an NG-U interface. As another example, abase station, such as an eLTE eNB 1040, may be interconnected to an NGC1030 control plane employing an NG-C interface. The base station, forexample, the eLTE eNB 1040, may also be interconnected to an NGC 1030user plane (e.g., UPGW) employing an NG-U interface. An NG interface maysupport a many-to-many relation between 5G core networks and basestations.

FIG. 11A, FIG. 11B, FIG. 11C, FIG. 11D, FIG. 11E, and FIG. 11F areexamples for architectures of tight interworking between a 5G RAN and anLTE RAN. The tight interworking may enable a multiplereceiver/transmitter (Rx/Tx) wireless device in an RRC_CONNECTED stateto be configured to utilize radio resources provided by two schedulerslocated in two base stations (e.g., an eLTE eNB and a gNB). The two basestations may be connected via a non-ideal or ideal backhaul over the Xxinterface between an LTE eNB and a gNB, or over the Xn interface betweenan eLTE eNB and a gNB. Base stations involved in tight interworking fora certain wireless device may assume different roles. For example, abase station may act as a master base station or a base station may actas a secondary base station. In tight interworking, a wireless devicemay be connected to both a master base station and a secondary basestation. Mechanisms implemented in tight interworking may be extended tocover more than two base stations.

A master base station may be an LTE eNB 1102A or an LTE eNB 1102B, whichmay be connected to EPC nodes 1101A or 1101B, respectively. Thisconnection to EPC nodes may be, for example, to an MME via the S1-Cinterface and/or to an S-GW via the S1-U interface. A secondary basestation may be a gNB 1103A or a gNB 1103B, either or both of which maybe a non-standalone node having a control plane connection via an Xx-Cinterface to an LTE eNB (e.g., the LTE eNB 1102A or the LTE eNB 1102B).In the tight interworking architecture of FIG. 11A, a user plane for agNB (e.g., the gNB 1103A) may be connected to an S-GW (e.g., the EPC1101A) through an LTE eNB (e.g., the LTE eNB 1102A), via an Xx-Uinterface between the LTE eNB and the gNB, and via an S1-U interfacebetween the LTE eNB and the S-GW. In the architecture of FIG. 11B, auser plane for a gNB (e.g., the gNB 1103B) may be connected directly toan S-GW (e.g., the EPC 1101B) via an S1-U interface between the gNB andthe S-GW.

A master base station may be a gNB 1103C or a gNB 1103D, which may beconnected to NGC nodes 1101C or 1101D, respectively. This connection toNGC nodes may be, for example, to a control plane core node via the NG-Cinterface and/or to a user plane core node via the NG-U interface. Asecondary base station may be an eLTE eNB 1102C or an eLTE eNB 1102D,either or both of which may be a non-standalone node having a controlplane connection via an Xn-C interface to a gNB (e.g., the gNB 1103C orthe gNB 1103D). In the tight interworking architecture of FIG. 11C, auser plane for an eLTE eNB (e.g., the eLTE eNB 1102C) may be connectedto a user plane core node (e.g., the NGC 1101C) through a gNB (e.g., thegNB 1103C), via an Xn-U interface between the eLTE eNB and the gNB, andvia an NG-U interface between the gNB and the user plane core node. Inthe architecture of FIG. 11D, a user plane for an eLTE eNB (e.g., theeLTE eNB 1102D) may be connected directly to a user plane core node(e.g., the NGC 1101D) via an NG-U interface between the eLTE eNB and theuser plane core node.

A master base station may be an eLTE eNB 1102E or an eLTE eNB 1102F,which may be connected to NGC nodes 1101E or 1101F, respectively. Thisconnection to NGC nodes may be, for example, to a control plane corenode via the NG-C interface and/or to a user plane core node via theNG-U interface. A secondary base station may be a gNB 1103E or a gNB1103F, either or both of which may be a non-standalone node having acontrol plane connection via an Xn-C interface to an eLTE eNB (e.g., theeLTE eNB 1102E or the eLTE eNB 1102F). In the tight interworkingarchitecture of FIG. 11E, a user plane for a gNB (e.g., the gNB 1103E)may be connected to a user plane core node (e.g., the NGC 1101E) throughan eLTE eNB (e.g., the eLTE eNB 1102E), via an Xn-U interface betweenthe eLTE eNB and the gNB, and via an NG-U interface between the eLTE eNBand the user plane core node. In the architecture of FIG. 11F, a userplane for a gNB (e.g., the gNB 1103F) may be connected directly to auser plane core node (e.g., the NGC 1101F) via an NG-U interface betweenthe gNB and the user plane core node.

FIG. 12A, FIG. 12B, and FIG. 12C are examples for radio protocolstructures of tight interworking bearers.

An LTE eNB 1201A may be an S1 master base station, and a gNB 1210A maybe an S1 secondary base station. An example for a radio protocolarchitecture for a split bearer and an SCG bearer is shown. The LTE eNB1201A may be connected to an EPC with a non-standalone gNB 1210A, via anXx interface between the PDCP 1206A and an NR RLC 1212A. The LTE eNB1201A may include protocol layers MAC 1202A, RLC 1203A and RLC 1204A,and PDCP 1205A and PDCP 1206A. An MCG bearer type may interface with thePDCP 1205A, and a split bearer type may interface with the PDCP 1206A.The gNB 1210A may include protocol layers NR MAC 1211A, NR RLC 1212A andNR RLC 1213A, and NR PDCP 1214A. An SCG bearer type may interface withthe NR PDCP 1214A.

A gNB 1201B may be an NG master base station, and an eLTE eNB 1210B maybe an NG secondary base station. An example for a radio protocolarchitecture for a split bearer and an SCG bearer is shown. The gNB1201B may be connected to an NGC with a non-standalone eLTE eNB 1210B,via an Xn interface between the NR PDCP 1206B and an RLC 1212B. The gNB1201B may include protocol layers NR MAC 1202B, NR RLC 1203B and NR RLC1204B, and NR PDCP 1205B and NR PDCP 1206B. An MCG bearer type mayinterface with the NR PDCP 1205B, and a split bearer type may interfacewith the NR PDCP 1206B. The eLTE eNB 1210B may include protocol layersMAC 1211B, RLC 1212B and RLC 1213B, and PDCP 1214B. An SCG bearer typemay interface with the PDCP 1214B.

An eLTE eNB 1201C may be an NG master base station, and a gNB 1210C maybe an NG secondary base station. An example for a radio protocolarchitecture for a split bearer and an SCG bearer is shown. The eLTE eNB1201C may be connected to an NGC with a non-standalone gNB 1210C, via anXn interface between the PDCP 1206C and an NR RLC 1212C. The eLTE eNB1201C may include protocol layers MAC 1202C, RLC 1203C and RLC 1204C,and PDCP 1205C and PDCP 1206C. An MCG bearer type may interface with thePDCP 1205C, and a split bearer type may interface with the PDCP 1206C.The gNB 1210C may include protocol layers NR MAC 1211C, NR RLC 1212C andNR RLC 1213C, and NR PDCP 1214C. An SCG bearer type may interface withthe NR PDCP 1214C.

In a 5G network, the radio protocol architecture that a particularbearer uses may depend on how the bearer is setup. At least threealternatives may exist, for example, an MCG bearer, an SCG bearer, and asplit bearer, such as shown in FIG. 12A, FIG. 12B, and FIG. 12C. The NRRRC may be located in a master base station, and the SRBs may beconfigured as an MCG bearer type and may use the radio resources of themaster base station. Tight interworking may have at least one bearerconfigured to use radio resources provided by the secondary basestation. Tight interworking may or may not be configured or implemented.

The wireless device may be configured with two MAC entities: e.g., oneMAC entity for a master base station, and one MAC entity for a secondarybase station. In tight interworking, the configured set of serving cellsfor a wireless device may comprise of two subsets: e.g., the Master CellGroup (MCG) including the serving cells of the master base station, andthe Secondary Cell Group (SCG) including the serving cells of thesecondary base station.

At least one cell in a SCG may have a configured UL CC and one of them,for example, a PSCell (or the PCell of the SCG, which may also be calleda PCell), is configured with PUCCH resources. If the SCG is configured,there may be at least one SCG bearer or one split bearer. If one or moreof a physical layer problem or a random access problem is detected on aPSCell, if the maximum number of (NR) RLC retransmissions associatedwith the SCG has been reached, and/or if an access problem on a PSCellduring an SCG addition or during an SCG change is detected, then: an RRCconnection re-establishment procedure may not be triggered, ULtransmissions towards cells of the SCG may be stopped, a master basestation may be informed by the wireless device of a SCG failure type,and/or for a split bearer the DL data transfer over the master basestation may be maintained. The RLC AM bearer may be configured for thesplit bearer. Like the PCell, a PSCell may not be de-activated. A PSCellmay be changed with an SCG change, for example, with security key changeand a RACH procedure. A direct bearer type change, between a splitbearer and an SCG bearer, may not be supported. Simultaneousconfiguration of an SCG and a split bearer may not be supported.

A master base station and a secondary base station may interact. Themaster base station may maintain the RRM measurement configuration ofthe wireless device. The master base station may determine to ask asecondary base station to provide additional resources (e.g., servingcells) for a wireless device. This determination may be based on, forexample, received measurement reports, traffic conditions, and/or bearertypes. If a request from the master base station is received, asecondary base station may create a container that may result in theconfiguration of additional serving cells for the wireless device, orthe secondary base station may determine that it has no resourceavailable to do so. The master base station may provide at least part ofthe AS configuration and the wireless device capabilities to thesecondary base station, for example, for wireless device capabilitycoordination. The master base station and the secondary base station mayexchange information about a wireless device configuration such as byusing RRC containers (e.g., inter-node messages) carried in Xn or Xxmessages. The secondary base station may initiate a reconfiguration ofits existing serving cells (e.g., PUCCH towards the secondary basestation). The secondary base station may determine which cell is thePSCell within the SCG. The master base station may not change thecontent of the RRC configuration provided by the secondary base station.If an SCG is added and/or an SCG SCell is added, the master base stationmay provide the latest measurement results for the SCG cell(s). Eitheror both of a master base station and a secondary base station may knowthe SFN and subframe offset of each other by OAM, (e.g., for the purposeof DRx alignment and identification of a measurement gap). If a new SCGSCell is added, dedicated RRC signaling may be used for sending requiredsystem information of the cell, such as for CA, except, for example, forthe SFN acquired from an MIB of the PSCell of an SCG.

FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B show examples for gNB deployment. A core 1301 anda core 1310 may interface with other nodes via RAN-CN interfaces. In anon-centralized deployment example, the full protocol stack (e.g., NRRRC, NR PDCP, NR RLC, NR MAC, and NR PHY) may be supported at one node,such as a gNB 1302, a gNB 1303, and/or an eLTE eNB or LTE eNB 1304.These nodes (e.g., the gNB 1302, the gNB 1303, and the eLTE eNB or LTEeNB 1304) may interface with one of more of each other via a respectiveinter-BS interface. In a centralized deployment example, upper layers ofa gNB may be located in a Central Unit (CU) 1311, and lower layers ofthe gNB may be located in Distributed Units (DU) 1312, 1313, and 1314.The CU-DU interface (e.g., Fs interface) connecting CU 1311 and DUs1312, 1312, and 1314 may be ideal or non-ideal. The Fs-C may provide acontrol plane connection over the Fs interface, and the Fs-U may providea user plane connection over the Fs interface. In the centralizeddeployment, different functional split options between the CU 1311 andthe DUs 1312, 1313, and 1314 may be possible by locating differentprotocol layers (e.g., RAN functions) in the CU 1311 and in the DU 1312,1313, and 1314. The functional split may support flexibility to move theRAN functions between the CU 1311 and the DUs 1312, 1313, and 1314depending on service requirements and/or network environments. Thefunctional split option may change during operation (e.g., after the Fsinterface setup procedure), or the functional split option may changeonly in the Fs setup procedure (e.g., the functional split option may bestatic during operation after Fs setup procedure).

FIG. 14 shows examples for different functional split options of acentralized gNB deployment. Element numerals that are followed by “A” or“B” designations in FIG. 14 may represent the same elements in differenttraffic flows, for example, either receiving data (e.g., data 1402A) orsending data (e.g., 1402B). In the split option example 1, an NR RRC1401 may be in a CU, and an NR PDCP 1403, an NR RLC (e.g., comprising aHigh NR RLC 1404 and/or a Low NR RLC 1405), an NR MAC (e.g., comprisinga High NR MAC 1406 and/or a Low NR MAC 1407), an NR PHY (e.g.,comprising a High NR PHY 1408 and/or a LOW NR PHY 1409), and an RF 1410may be in a DU. In the split option example 2, the NR RRC 1401 and theNR PDCP 1403 may be in a CU, and the NR RLC, the NR MAC, the NR PHY, andthe RF 1410 may be in a DU. In the split option example 3, the NR RRC1401, the NR PDCP 1403, and a partial function of the NR RLC (e.g., theHigh NR RLC 1404) may be in a CU, and the other partial function of theNR RLC (e.g., the Low NR RLC 1405), the NR MAC, the NR PHY, and the RF1410 may be in a DU. In the split option example 4, the NR RRC 1401, theNR PDCP 1403, and the NR RLC may be in a CU, and the NR MAC, the NR PHY,and the RF 1410 may be in a DU. In the split option example 5, the NRRRC 1401, the NR PDCP 1403, the NR RLC, and a partial function of the NRMAC (e.g., the High NR MAC 1406) may be in a CU, and the other partialfunction of the NR MAC (e.g., the Low NR MAC 1407), the NR PHY, and theRF 1410 may be in a DU. In the split option example 6, the NR RRC 1401,the NR PDCP 1403, the NR RLC, and the NR MAC may be in CU, and the NRPHY and the RF 1410 may be in a DU. In the split option example 7, theNR RRC 1401, the NR PDCP 1403, the NR RLC, the NR MAC, and a partialfunction of the NR PHY (e.g., the High NR PHY 1408) may be in a CU, andthe other partial function of the NR PHY (e.g., the Low NR PHY 1409) andthe RF 1410 may be in a DU. In the split option example 8, the NR RRC1401, the NR PDCP 1403, the NR RLC, the NR MAC, and the NR PHY may be ina CU, and the RF 1410 may be in a DU.

The functional split may be configured per CU, per DU, per wirelessdevice, per bearer, per slice, and/or with other granularities. In a perCU split, a CU may have a fixed split, and DUs may be configured tomatch the split option of the CU. In a per DU split, each DU may beconfigured with a different split, and a CU may provide different splitoptions for different DUs. In a per wireless device split, a gNB (e.g.,a CU and a DU) may provide different split options for differentwireless devices. In a per bearer split, different split options may beutilized for different bearer types. In a per slice splice, differentsplit options may be applied for different slices.

A new radio access network (new RAN) may support different networkslices, which may allow differentiated treatment customized to supportdifferent service requirements with end to end scope. The new RAN mayprovide a differentiated handling of traffic for different networkslices that may be pre-configured, and the new RAN may allow a singleRAN node to support multiple slices. The new RAN may support selectionof a RAN part for a given network slice, for example, by one or moreslice ID(s) or NSSAI(s) provided by a wireless device or provided by anNGC (e.g., an NG CP). The slice ID(s) or NSSAI(s) may identify one ormore of pre-configured network slices in a PLMN. For an initial attach,a wireless device may provide a slice ID and/or an NSSAI, and a RAN node(e.g., a gNB) may use the slice ID or the NSSAI for routing an initialNAS signaling to an NGC control plane function (e.g., an NG CP). If awireless device does not provide any slice ID or NSSAI, a RAN node maysend a NAS signaling to a default NGC control plane function. Forsubsequent accesses, the wireless device may provide a temporary ID fora slice identification, which may be assigned by the NGC control planefunction, to enable a RAN node to route the NAS message to a relevantNGC control plane function. The new RAN may support resource isolationbetween slices. If the RAN resource isolation is implemented, shortageof shared resources in one slice does not cause a break in a servicelevel agreement for another slice.

The amount of data traffic carried over networks is expected to increasefor many years to come. The number of users and/or devices is increasingand each user/device accesses an increasing number and variety ofservices, for example, video delivery, large files, and images. Thisrequires not only high capacity in the network, but also provisioningvery high data rates to meet customers' expectations on interactivityand responsiveness. More spectrum may be required for network operatorsto meet the increasing demand Considering user expectations of high datarates along with seamless mobility, it is beneficial that more spectrumbe made available for deploying macro cells as well as small cells forcommunication systems.

Striving to meet the market demands, there has been increasing interestfrom operators in deploying some complementary access utilizingunlicensed spectrum to meet the traffic growth. This is exemplified bythe large number of operator-deployed Wi-Fi networks and the 3GPPstandardization of LTE/WLAN interworking solutions. This interestindicates that unlicensed spectrum, if present, may be an effectivecomplement to licensed spectrum for network operators, for example, tohelp address the traffic explosion in some examples, such as hotspotareas. Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) offers an alternative foroperators to make use of unlicensed spectrum, for example, if managingone radio network, offering new possibilities for optimizing thenetwork's efficiency.

Listen-before-talk (clear channel assessment) may be implemented fortransmission in an LAA cell. In a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure,equipment may apply a clear channel assessment (CCA) check before usingthe channel. For example, the CCA may utilize at least energy detectionto determine the presence or absence of other signals on a channel todetermine if a channel is occupied or clear, respectively. For example,European and Japanese regulations mandate the usage of LBT in theunlicensed bands. Apart from regulatory requirements, carrier sensingvia LBT may be one way for fair sharing of the unlicensed spectrum.

Discontinuous transmission on an unlicensed carrier with limited maximumtransmission duration may be enabled. Some of these functions may besupported by one or more signals to be transmitted from the beginning ofa discontinuous LAA downlink transmission. Channel reservation may beenabled by the transmission of signals, by an LAA node, after gainingchannel access, for example, via a successful LBT operation, so thatother nodes that receive the transmitted signal with energy above acertain threshold sense the channel to be occupied. Functions that mayneed to be supported by one or more signals for LAA operation withdiscontinuous downlink transmission may include one or more of thefollowing: detection of the LAA downlink transmission (including cellidentification) by wireless devices, time synchronization of wirelessdevices, and frequency synchronization of wireless devices.

DL LAA design may employ subframe boundary alignment according to LTE-Acarrier aggregation timing relationships across serving cells aggregatedby CA. This may not indicate that the eNB transmissions may start onlyat the subframe boundary. LAA may support transmitting PDSCH if not allOFDM symbols are available for transmission in a subframe according toLBT. Delivery of necessary control information for the PDSCH may also besupported.

LBT procedures may be employed for fair and friendly coexistence of LAAwith other operators and technologies operating in unlicensed spectrum.LBT procedures on a node attempting to transmit on a carrier inunlicensed spectrum may require the node to perform a clear channelassessment to determine if the channel is free for use. An LBT proceduremay involve at least energy detection to determine if the channel isbeing used. For example, regulatory requirements in some regions, forexample, in Europe, specify an energy detection threshold such that if anode receives energy greater than this threshold, the node assumes thatthe channel is not free. Nodes may follow such regulatory requirements.A node may optionally use a lower threshold for energy detection thanthat specified by regulatory requirements. LAA may employ a mechanism toadaptively change the energy detection threshold, for example, LAA mayemploy a mechanism to adaptively lower the energy detection thresholdfrom an upper bound. Adaptation mechanism may not preclude static orsemi-static setting of the threshold. A Category 4 LBT mechanism orother type of LBT mechanisms may be implemented.

Various example LBT mechanisms may be implemented. For some signalsand/or in some frequencies, no LBT procedure may performed by thetransmitting entity. For example, Category 2 (e.g., LBT without randomback-off) may be implemented. The duration of time that the channel issensed to be idle before the transmitting entity transmits may bedeterministic. For example, Category 3 (e.g., LBT with random back-offwith a contention window of fixed size) may be implemented. The LBTprocedure may have the following procedure as one of its components. Thetransmitting entity may draw a random number N within a contentionwindow. The size of the contention window may be specified by theminimum and maximum value of N. The size of the contention window may befixed. The random number N may be employed in the LBT procedure todetermine the duration of time that the channel is sensed to be idle,for example, before the transmitting entity transmits on the channel.For example, Category 4 (e.g., LBT with random back-off with acontention window of variable size) may be implemented. The transmittingentity may draw a random number N within a contention window. The sizeof contention window may be specified by the minimum and maximum valueof N. The transmitting entity may vary the size of the contention windowif drawing the random number N. The random number N may be used in theLBT procedure to determine the duration of time that the channel issensed to be idle, for example, before the transmitting entity transmitson the channel.

LAA may employ uplink LBT at the wireless device. The UL LBT scheme maybe different from the DL LBT scheme, for example, by using different LBTmechanisms or parameters. These differences in schemes may be due to theLAA UL being based on scheduled access, which may affect a wirelessdevice's channel contention opportunities. Other considerationsmotivating a different UL LBT scheme may include, but are not limitedto, multiplexing of multiple wireless devices in a single subframe.

LAA may use uplink LBT at the wireless device. The UL LBT scheme may bedifferent from the DL LBT scheme, for example, by using different LBTmechanisms or parameters. These differences in schemes may be due to theLAA UL being based on scheduled access, which may affect a wirelessdevice's channel contention opportunities. Other considerationsmotivating a different UL LBT scheme may include, but are not limitedto, multiplexing of multiple wireless devices in a single subframe.

A DL transmission burst may be a continuous transmission from a DLtransmitting node, for example, with no transmission immediately beforeor after from the same node on the same CC. An UL transmission burstfrom a wireless device perspective may be a continuous transmission froma wireless device, for example, with no transmission immediately beforeor after from the same wireless device on the same CC. A UL transmissionburst may be defined from a wireless device perspective or from an eNBperspective. If an eNB is operating DL and UL LAA over the sameunlicensed carrier, DL transmission burst(s) and UL transmissionburst(s) on LAA may be scheduled in a TDM manner over the sameunlicensed carrier. An instant in time may be part of a DL transmissionburst or part of an UL transmission burst.

A base station may send, to a core network entity (e.g. MME, AMF, and/orthe like) one or more beam identifiers of one or more beams (e.g. one ormore CSI-RS beams, one or more SS beams, and/or the like). The one ormore beams may be used by the base station to serve a wireless device.The core network entity may utilize the one or more beam identifiers foran efficient paging procedure for paging the wireless device, which maystay in area of the one or more beams for a long period of time (e.g.for a static wireless device and/or for a semi-static/nomadic wirelessdevice). The base station may be able to save radio resources for apaging procedure and/or reduce overhead for transmitting paging messagesmultiple times via all beams, for example, if a paging message istransmitted via one or more selected beams, but not all beams, of acell. A base station distributed unit (DU) (e.g. gNB-DU) may send, to abase station central unit (CU) (e.g. gNB-CU), one or more beamidentifiers of one or more beams. The base station DU and the basestation CU may be parts of a base station. The base station may comprisethe base station CU and one or more base station DUs comprising the basestation DU. The one or more beams may be used by the base station DU toserve a wireless device or a plurality of wireless devices. The basestation CU may utilize the one or more beam identifiers for an efficientpaging procedure for paging (e.g. RAN paging and/or core network paging)the wireless device, which may stay in area of the one or more beams fora long period of time (e.g. for a static wireless device and/or for asemi-static/nomadic wireless device). If a paging message is transmittedvia one or more selected beams, the base station may be able to saveradio resources for a paging procedure, and/or the base station may beable to reduce overhead for transmitting paging messages multiple timesvia all beams.

A base station may send, to a core network entity (CNE) (e.g. AMF and/orMME, via an N2 interface and/or via an S1 interface), a message (e.g. aUE context release request message and/or a UE context release completemessage) indicating a context release of the wireless device. Thecontext release message may comprise paging assistance elements, such ascell ID and beam identifiers. The base station may receive, from theCNE, a first paging message comprising a wireless device ID and thepaging assistance information elements. The CNE may transmit the firstpaging message, for example, after or in response to receiving a datanotification for the wireless device; transmit a control signalingand/or one or more data packets; and/or to transition an RRC state ofthe wireless device into an RRC connected state. The CNE may utilize theone or more beam identifiers for an efficient paging procedure forpaging the wireless device. If a paging message (and/or a pagingindication) is transmitted via one or more selected beams, the basestation may be able to save radio resources for a paging procedure andreduce overhead, such as compared to transmitting paging messagesmultiple times via all beams (e.g. via multiple beams of a cell). Animmediate response to the CNE may not be required, for example, based onthe transmission of the paging message. A base station may send pagingassistance information elements to the CNE, for example, because thebase station may release the paging assistance information from memory(e.g., at the time of or after sending the paging assistance informationelements). The CNE may send the same paging assistance information(and/or a subset of the paging assistance information) back to the basestation for paging the wireless device, which may conserve resources.

A base station DU (e.g. gNB-DU) may send, to a base station CU (e.g.gNB-CU) (e.g., via an F1 interface), a message (e.g. a UE contextrelease request message and/or a UE context release complete message)indicating a context release of the wireless device including pagingassistance elements, such as cell ID and/or beam identifiers. The basestation DU may receive, from the base station CU, a first paging messageincluding a wireless device ID and the paging assistance informationelements. The base station CU may transmit the first paging message inresponse to receiving data for the wireless device; to transmit acontrol signaling; and/or to transition an RRC state of the wirelessdevice into an RRC connected state (e.g. from an RRC idle state or anRRC inactive state). The base station CU may utilize the one or morebeam identifiers for an efficient paging procedure for paging thewireless device. If a paging message (and/or a paging indication) istransmitted via one or more selected beams, the base station DU may beable to save radio resources for a paging procedure and reduce overheadas compared to transmitting paging messages multiple times via all beams(e.g. via multiple beams of a cell). An immediate response to the basestation CU may not be required based on the transmission of the pagingmessage. A base station DU may send paging assistance informationelements to the base station CU as the base station DU may release thepaging assistance information from memory. The base station CU may sendthe same paging assistance information (and/or a subset of the pagingassistance information) back to the base station DU for paging thewireless device, thereby saving resources. The base station CU may sendthe paging assistance information to the CNE (e.g., if the wirelessdevice transitions to an RRC idle state), and/or the base station mayreceive the paging assistance information (and/or a subset of the pagingassistance information) from the CNE (e.g. via a core network pagingmessage).

A wireless network may support both single beam and multi-beamoperations. In a multi-beam system, a base station may utilize adownlink (DL) beam sweep to provide coverage for DL synchronizationsignals (SSs) and common control channels. A wireless device may utilizea similar sweep for uplink (UL) SS as well. For single beam systems, anetwork may configure time-repetition within one SS block, which maycomprise at least a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondarysynchronization signal (SSS), and/or a physical broadcast channel(PBCH), in a wide beam. For multi-beam systems, the network mayconfigure at least some of these signals and physical channels (e.g. aSS block) in multiple beams such that a wireless device identifies atleast OFDM symbol index, slot index in a radio frame, and/or a radioframe number from an SS block.

A wireless device in a RRC_INACTIVE or RRC_IDLE mode/state may assumethat an SS block may form an SS block set and/or an SS block set bursthaving a given periodicity. For multi-beam systems, the SS block may betransmitted in multiple beams, together forming an SS burst. If multipleSS bursts are needed to transmit beams, these SS bursts together mayform an SS burst set. PSS/SSS/PBCH may be repeated to support cellselection/reselection and initial access procedures for a cell in amulti-beam system. Differences in the conveyed PRACH configurationimplied by a tertiary synchronization signal (TSS) may occur on a beambasis within an SS burst. A base station may broadcast PRACHconfigurations per beam where the TSS may be utilized to imply the PRACHconfiguration differences, for example, if PBCH carries the PRACHconfiguration.

The base station may transmit, to a wireless device, one or moremessages comprising configuration parameters of one or more cells. Theconfiguration parameters may comprise parameters of a plurality ofCSI-RS signal format and/or resources. Configuration parameters of aCSI-RS may indicate CSI-RS periodicity, CSI-RS subcarriers (e.g.resource elements), CSI-RS sequence, and/or other parameters. Some ofthe parameters may be combined. A plurality of CSI-RS signals may beconfigured. The one or more message may indicate the correspondencebetween SS blocks and CSI-RS signals. The one or more messages may beRRC connection setup messages, RRC connection resume messages, and/orRRC connection reconfiguration messages. A wireless device in a RRC_IDLEmode may not be configured with CSI-RS signals, may receive SS blocks,and/or may measure a pathloss based on SS signals. A wireless device inRRC-connected mode may be configured with CSI-RS signals and/or maymeasure pathloss based on CSI-RS signals. A wireless device in aRRC_INACTIVE mode may measure the pathloss based on SS blocks, such asif the wireless device moves to a different base station that has adifferent CSI-RS configuration compared with the anchor base station.

In multi-beam systems, a wireless network may configure different typesof PRACH resources that may be associated with SS blocks and/or DLbeams. A PRACH transmission occasion may include the time-frequencyresource on which a wireless device may transmit a preamble using theconfigured PRACH preamble format with a single particular Tx beam andfor which a base station performs PRACH preamble detection. One or morePRACH occasions may be used to cover beam non-correspondence. A basestation may perform an Rx sweep, for example, during a PRACH occasion asa wireless device Tx beam alignment may be fixed during a singleoccasion. A PRACH burst may include a set of PRACH occasions allocatedconsecutively in time domain. A PRACH burst set may include a set ofPRACH bursts to enable full Rx sweep.

There may be an association between SS blocks (DL signal/channel) and aPRACH occasion and/or a subset of PRACH preamble resources. A PRACHoccasion may comprise a set of preambles. In multi beam operation, thebase station may need to know which beam or set of beams it may use tosend an RAR. The preambles may indicate the beam and/or the beam set.

A wireless network may configure partitioning and/or mappings in multibeam operation. The timing from SS block to the PRACH resource may beindicated in the MIB. Different TSS may be used for different timingssuch that the detected sequence within TSS may indicate the PRACHresource. The PRACH configuration may be specified as a timing relativeto the SS block and may be given as a combination of the payload in theMIB and/or another broadcasted system information. An associationbetween SS block and a subset of RACH resources and/or a subset ofpreamble indices may be configured so that TRP may identify the best DLbeam for a wireless device according to a resource location and/orpreamble index of received preamble. An association may be independentand/or at least either a subset of RACH resources. A subset of preambleindices may not be allowed to be associated with multiple SS blocks.

PRACH resources may be partitioned on an SS-blocks basis in multiplebeams operation. There may be one to one and/or a many to one mappingbetween SS-blocks and PRACH occasions. A wireless device may detect aSS-block based on DL synchronization signals and/or differentiateSS-blocks based on the time index. The transmission of a PRACH preambleresource may be an indication informed by a wireless device to basestation of the preferred SS-block in a one-to-one mapping of beam orbeams used to transmit an SS-block and a specific PRACH occasion. ThePRACH preamble resources of a single PRACH occasion may correspond to aspecific SS-block and mapping, for example, which may be done based onthe SS-block index. There may be a one to one mapping between anSS-block beam and a PRACH occasion. There may not be such mapping forthe SS-block periodicity and the RACH occasion periodicity.

Depending on the base station capability (e.g. the beamformingarchitecture utilized), there may not be one to one mapping between asingle SS-block and a single RACH occasion. For a beam or beams used fortransmitting an SS-block and receiving (e.g., during a RACH occasion)that do not correspond directly, such as the base station formingreceive beams that cover multiple SS-blocks beams, the preambles of aPRACH occasion may be divided between the different SS-blocks in amanner that a subset of PRACH preambles map to a specific SS-block.

A base station DL Tx beam may be associated with a subset of preamblesfor beam-specific

PRACH resources. The beam specific PRACH preambles resources may beassociated with DL Tx beams that may be identified by periodical beamand cell specific CSI-RS for L3 mobility, L2 beam management, and/orintra-cell mobility. A wireless device may detect the beams without anRRC configuration, such as by reading the beam configuration from aminimum SI (e.g., MIB/SIB).

The PRACH resource mapping to specific beams may use an SS-blockassociation. Specific beams may be associated with the beams used fortransmitting SS-blocks. A base station may transmit SS-block using oneor multiple beams (e.g. for analog/hybrid beamforming), but individualbeams may not be detected. From the wireless device perspective, thismay be a single beam transmission. A base station may transmit CSI-RS(e.g. for mobility) using individual beams associated with a specificSS-block. A wireless device may detect individual beams based on theCSI-RS.

PRACH occasions may be mapped to corresponding SS-block. A set of PRACHpreambles may be divided between beams. Multiple beams of an SS-blockmay be mapped to at least one PRACH occasion. If a PRACH occasion isconfigured with k preambles and a PRACH occasion is configured to beSS-block specific, the set of preambles may be used to indicate thespecific SS-block, where k may be an arbitrary number or a predeterminedvalue. There may be N PRACH occasions corresponding to N SS-blocks,where N may be an arbitrary number or a predetermined value. If multipleSS-blocks are mapped to a single PRACH occasion, the preambles may bedivided between SS-blocks. The available preambles per SS-block may bek/N (k preambles, N SS-blocks), for example, depending on the number ofSS-blocks. If k SS-block specific preambles are divided between CSI-RSbeams in the corresponding PRACH occasions, the number of availablepreambles per beam may be determined by the k preambles divided by thenumber of beams.

The wireless device may indicate a preferred SS-block, but not thepreferred individual DL

Tx beam, to the base station, for example, if the preambles arepartitioned in an SS-block specific manner. The network may configuremapping and/or partitioning of PRACH preamble resources to SS-blocksand/or to individual beams. A wireless device may determine the usedpartitioning of PRACH preambles, as much as possible, for example, basedon the PRACH configuration.

Beam-specific PRACH configurations may be configurable, for example, ifa base station uses analog Rx beamforming. A wireless device may send,for example, a preamble in a beam-specific time/frequency slotassociated with one or multiple SS block transmissions. The base stationmay use the appropriate Rx beamforming, for example, if receiving thepreamble in that time/frequency slot and/or the base station may use thecorresponding DL beam, for example, if transmitting the RAR.Beam-specific PRACH configurations may allow the base station to directits Rx beamforming in the direction of the same beam, for example, ifmonitoring the associated PRACH resources.

For multi-beam RACH, a wireless device may be under the coverage of agiven DL beam (or a subset) in a cell due to the mapping between DL SSbeams and a PRACH configuration, such as a time/frequency slot and/orpreamble partitioning. The base station may send a RAR in a DL beamand/or the base station may perform an optimized beam sweepingprocedure, for example, not transmitting the same RAR message inmultiple beams.

A wireless network may support contention-free RACH with multi-beamoperation and/or the wireless device may provide a dedicated RACHresource for the preamble transmission for handover, DL data arrival,and/or positioning and obtaining timing advance alignment for asecondary TAG. A wireless device may be configured to measure on one ormore SS blocks and/or other RS in a neighboring cell for a handover. Thesource base station may signal a preferred beam index in a handoverrequest to the target base station, for example, if one of theneighboring cell SS-block measurements triggers a handover request. Thetarget base station may provide a beam-specific dedicated RACH resource,which may include a preamble, in the handover command. The target basestation may provide a set of dedicated resources, for example, one forat least one SS-block in the handover command. The wireless device maytransmit a message (e.g., Msg1) using the dedicated preamblecorresponding to the preferred DL beam in the target cell.

A cell may be operated with one or more beams in a multi-antenna system.A beam may have a spatial direction and/or a beam may cover a part of acell coverage area. A combination of one or more beam spatial areas mayform a cell coverage area. A beam transmitting a synchronization signaland/or receiving a signal from a wireless device may be swept over acell coverage area in a predetermined way. A synchronization signalindex, a synchronization signal scheduling information, and/or asynchronization signal sequence information, may be used to identify aswept beam. A swept beam may broadcast one or more control informationcomprising at least one of: a system information, a master information,a PDCCH, a PRACH resource, a random access preamble information, asynchronization signal, a reference signal, and/or the like. A beam maytransmit a reference signal such as CSI-RS. A beam may be identified bya reference signal (e.g. CSI-RS, DM-RS, and the like) index, a referencesignal scheduling information, and/or a reference signal sequenceinformation.

One or more beams may be managed via a set of L1/L2 procedures toacquire and maintain a set of transmission reception points (TRPs)and/or wireless device beams that may be used for DL and ULtransmission/reception. These procedures may include beam determination(e.g. for TRP(s) or wireless device to select of its own Tx/Rx beam(s)),beam measurement (e.g. for TRP(s) or wireless device to measurecharacteristics of received beamformed signals), beam reporting (e.g.for wireless device to report information of beamformed signal(s) basedon beam measurement), and/or beam sweeping (e.g. operation of covering aspatial area, with beams transmitted and/or received such as during atime interval in a predetermined way).

Tx/Rx beam correspondence at a TRP and a wireless device may comprisedetermining if a TRP Rx beam for an uplink reception is based on thewireless device's downlink measurement on the TRP's one or more Txbeams. The TRP may be able to determine a TRP Tx beam for the downlinktransmission, for example, based on TRP's uplink measurement on theTRP's one or more Rx beams. Tx/Rx beam correspondence at a wirelessdevice may comprise determining if the wireless device may be able todetermine a Tx beam for the uplink transmission, for example, based onthe wireless device's downlink measurement on the wireless device's oneor more Rx beams. A wireless device may be able to determine a wirelessdevice Rx beam for the downlink reception, for example, based on theTRP's indication which may be based on uplink measurement on thewireless device's one or more Tx beams. A capability indication ofwireless device beam correspondence related information to TRP may besupported.

A number of DL L1/L2 beam management procedures (e.g. P-1, P-2, and P-3)may be supported within one or multiple TRPs. P-1 may be used to enablewireless device measurement on different TRP Tx beams to supportselection of TRP Tx beams/wireless device Rx beam(s). Beamforming at aTRP may include an intra/inter-TRP Tx beam sweep from a set of differentbeams. Beamforming at a wireless device may include a wireless device Rxbeam sweep from a set of different beams. P-2 may be used to enablewireless device measurement on different TRP Tx beams, for example, topossibly change inter/intra-TRP Tx beam(s) from a potentially smallerset of beams for beam refinement than in P-1. P-2 may be a special caseof P-1. P-3 may be used to enable wireless device measurement on thesame TRP Tx beam, for example, to change a wireless device Rx beam for awireless device that uses beamforming. Network triggered aperiodic beamreporting may be supported under P-1, P-2, and/or P-3 relatedoperations.

Wireless device measurement based on RS for beam management (at leastCSI-RS) may performed for K beams, and/or a wireless device may reportmeasurement results of N selected Tx beams, where K represents the totalnumber of configured beams and K and/or N may not be a fixed number.Reporting information may comprise at least measurement quantities for Nbeam(s) and information indicating N DL Tx beam(s), if N<K.Specifically, if a wireless device is configured with K>1 non-zero power(NZP) CSI-RS resources, a wireless device may report N CRIs (CSI-RSResource Indicator). A wireless device may be configured with high layerparameters for beam management, such as N≥1 reporting settings, M≥1resource settings, the links between reporting settings and resourcesettings may be configured in the agreed CSI measurement setting, CSI-RSbased P-1 & P-2 may be supported with resource and reporting settings,and/or P-3 may be supported with or without reporting setting. Areporting setting may include information indicating selected beam(s),L1 measurement reporting, time-domain behavior (e.g. aperiodic,periodic, semi-persistent), and/or frequency-granularity. Multiplefrequency granularities may be supported. A resource setting may includetime-domain behavior (e.g. aperiodic, periodic, semi-persistent), RStype (e.g. NZP CSI-RS), and/or at least one CSI-RS resource set witheach CSI-RS resource set having K≥1 CSI-RS resources. Some parameters ofK CSI-RS resources may have common attributes such as port number,time-domain behavior, density, and/or periodicity.

A wireless device may report information about TRP Tx beam(s) that maybe received using selected wireless device Rx beam set(s). An Rx beamset may include to a set of wireless device Rx beams that may be usedfor receiving a DL signal. A wireless device may construct the Rx beamset. Each Rx beam in a wireless device Rx beam set may correspond to aselected Rx beam in each panel. For wireless devices with more than onewireless device Rx beam set, the wireless device may report TRP Txbeam(s) and/or an identifier of the associated wireless device Rx beamset per reported Tx beam. Different TRP Tx beams reported for the sameRx beam set may be received simultaneously at the wireless device.Different TRP Tx beams reported for different wireless device Rx beamset may not be received simultaneously at the wireless device.

A wireless device may report information about TRP Tx beam(s) on a perwireless device antenna group basis. A wireless device antenna group mayinclude an antenna panel and/or subarray. For wireless devices with morethan one wireless device antenna group, the wireless device may reportTRP Tx beam(s) and/or an identifier of the associated wireless deviceantenna group per reported Tx beam. Different Tx beams reported fordifferent antenna groups may be received simultaneously at the wirelessdevice. Different Tx beams reported for the same wireless device antennagroup may not be received simultaneously at the wireless device.

A wireless network may support beam reporting for L groups, where L>=1.Each group may refer to an Rx beam set and/or a wireless device antennagroup. For each group L, the wireless device may report informationindicating group, measurement quantities for N_(L) beam(s) that maysupport L1 RSRP and CSI report (e.g., if CSI-RS is for CSI acquisition),and/or information indicating N_(L) DL Tx beam(s). Group based beamreporting may be configurable per wireless device basis. Group basedbeam reporting may be turned off per wireless device basis, for example,if L=1 or N_(L)=1. Group identifiers may not be reported.

A wireless device may trigger mechanisms to recover from beam failureevents. Beam failure events may occur, for example, if the quality ofbeam pair link(s) of an associated control channel falls low enough,such as by a comparison with a threshold and/or a time-out of anassociated timer. Beam failure recovery may be triggered if a beamfailure occurs. A base station may configure a wireless device withresources for UL transmission of signals for beam failure recovery.Configurations of resources may be supported, such as if the basestation may be listening from all or partial directions, such as arandom access region. UL transmission and/or resources to report beamfailure may be located in the same time instance as the PRACH (e.g.resources orthogonal to PRACH resources) and/or at a time instance(which may be configurable for a wireless device) different from thePRACH. DL signal transmissions may be supported, for example, to allowthe wireless device to monitor the beams for identifying new potentialbeams.

A wireless network may support beam management with and/or withoutbeam-related indication. If a beam-related indication is provided,information pertaining to wireless device-side beamforming/receivingprocedure used for CSI-RS-based measurement may be indicated throughquasi co-location (QCL) to a wireless device. A wireless network maysupport using the same or different beams on control channel and thecorresponding data channel transmissions.

A wireless device may be configured to monitor the PDCCH on M beam pairlinks simultaneously for PDCCH transmission supporting robustnessagainst beam pair link blocking, where M≥1 and the maximum value of Mmay depend at least on wireless device capability. A wireless device maybe configured to monitor the PDCCH on different beam pair link(s) indifferent PDCCH OFDM symbols. Parameters related to wireless device Rxbeam setting for monitoring the PDCCH on multiple beam pair links may beconfigured by higher layer signaling, a MAC CE, and/or considered in thesearch space design. A wireless network may support indication ofspatial QCL assumption between DL RS antenna port(s) and/or DL RSantenna port(s) for demodulation of DL control channel Candidatesignaling methods for beam indication for a PDCCH (e.g. configurationmethod to monitor PDCCH) may include one or more of MAC CE signaling,RRC signaling, DCI signaling, specification-transparent, and/or implicitmethod. Indication may not be needed.

For reception of unicast DL data channel, a wireless network may supportindication of spatial QCL assumption between DL RS antenna port(s) andDMRS antenna port(s) of DL data channel Information indicating the RSantenna port(s) may be indicated via DCI (downlink grants). Theinformation may indicate the RS antenna port(s) which may be QCL-ed withDMRS antenna port(s). Different set of DMRS antenna port(s) for the DLdata channel may be indicated as QCL with different set of RS antennaport(s). Indication may not be needed.

A CU-DU interface between CU and DU may be defined as an F1 interface.There may be transport networks with performances that may vary fromhigh transport latency to low transport latency in deployment. Fortransport networks with higher transport latency, higher layer splitsmay be used. For transport networks with lower transport latency, lowerlayer splits may also be used and preferable to realize enhancedperformance (e.g. centralized scheduling). A preferable option may bedifferent between different types of transport networks, ranging fromlower layer split for transport networks with lower transport latency tohigher layer split for transport networks with higher transport latency.Within lower layer splits, there may be both demands to reduce transportbandwidth and demands to support efficient scheduling and advancedreceivers.

Network interworking may be based on dual connectivity mechanisms.Network interworking may not include a particular functional split.Aggregation of PDCP functionalities for split bearers may be allowed.

The granularity of the CU/DU functional split may be per CU (e.g. eachCU may a fixed split, and DUs may be configured to match this) and/orper DU (e.g. each DU may be configured with a different split). Thechoice of a DU split may depend on specific topology or backhaul supportin an area. The CU/DU decision and/or coordination of the split may beconfigured. Additionally or alternatively, the split may be negotiatedbased on capabilities of the units (e.g. CU and DU) and/or deploymentpreference (e.g. based on backhaul topology). Additional splitgranularity options may include per wireless device (e.g. differentwireless devices may have different service levels, or belong todifferent categories, that may be best served in different ways by theRAN e.g. a low rate IoT-type wireless device with no need for lowlatency may not necessarily require higher layer functions close to theRF), per bearer (e.g. different bearers may have different QOSrequirements that may be best supported by different functionalitymapping. For example, QCI=1 type bearer may require low delay but maynot be SDU error sensitive, while eMBB may not be delay sensitive butmay have challenging requirements on throughput and SDU error rate),and/or per slice (e.g. it may be expected that each slice may have atleast some distinctive QOS requirements). Different functionalitymapping may be suitable for each slice.

Per CU and per DU options may pertain to flexibility of networktopology. Whether procedures may be required to handle the initialconfiguration (or O&M may be relied upon) may not be addressed, forexample, during a study phase. In a per DU option, a CU may need tosupport different split levels in different interfaces. This may not beutilized for per CU operation. Further granularity (e.g. per wirelessdevice, per bearer, per slice) may be based on QoS and latencyrequirements. Per wireless device, per bearer, and/or per slice optionsmay imply that a particular instance of the interface between CU/DU mayneed to support multiple granularity levels simultaneously on the userplane. The baseline may be CU based or DU based.

Dynamicity may imply that the protocol distribution and the interfacebetween the CU and DU may need to be reconfigured. If the switchingoccurs in CU-DU setup procedure (e.g. F1 interface setup procedure), theinterface design may not be influenced largely as the split option maynot be changed, for example, during operation. If the switching occursduring operation, there may be impact on complexity of interface.

Not all of the defined functional splits may allow for having RRMfunctions, such as call admission control and load balancing, in the CUcontrolling multiple DUs. This may allow for increased efficiency ininter-cell coordination for RRM functions such as the coordination ofinterference management, load balancing, and/or call admission control.The improved efficiency may be realized, for example, if the CU has areliable and accurate understanding of the current environment at theDU. Conditions at the DU may comprise radio conditions, currentprocessing capabilities, and/or current terrestrial capacity, such asfor wireless or mesh backhauling.

Functional split Option 5, Option 6, Option 7 and Option 8 may allow forscheduling of data transmission in the CU. Centralized scheduling mayprovide benefits for interference management and/or coordinatedtransmission in multiple cells. This may require the CU to have anunderstanding of the state of the DU radio conditions than for CAC andother centralized RRM functions. Low latency/jitter transport and/orsufficient coordination of timing and reception of user plane data maybe required. Centralization of RAN functions may have benefits such asreduced cost, improved scalability, more efficient inter-cellcoordination for interference management, as well as improved mobilityin ultra-dense deployments.

RRC related functions may be located in the CU. The RRC message betweenthe base station and the wireless device may be transferred through theinterface (e.g. F1 interface) between the CU and the DU. RRC messagesmay require a differentiated transport between CU and DU compared todata transport, e.g. in terms of robustness and delay.

F1-C and F1-U may provide C-plane and U-plane over F1 interface,respectively. A central unit (CU) may be a logical node that may includea subset of the base station functions as listed excepting thosefunctions allocated exclusively to the distributed unit (DU). The CU maycontrol the operation of DUs. A DU may be a logical node that mayinclude, depending on the functional split option, a subset of the basestation functions.

A F1AP ID may be allocated to uniquely identify a wireless device overthe F1 interface within a CU and an associated DU. If a DU receives aF1AP ID, it may store it for the duration of the wirelessdevice-associated logical F1-connection for this wireless device. TheF1AP ID may be unique within the CU logical node and the associated DUlogical node. The definition of the AP ID may be pending the decision onwhether the DU may be connected to multiple CUs. Wirelessdevice-associated signaling may be one or more F1AP messages associatedto one wireless device. The one or more F1AP messages may use thewireless device-associated logical F1-connection for association of themessage to the wireless device in DU and CU. The wirelessdevice-associated logical F1-connection may use the identities of theF1AP ID. For a received wireless device associated F1AP message, the CUand DU may identify the associated wireless device based on the F1AP IDIE. The wireless device-associated logical F1-connection may existbefore the F1 wireless device context is setup in a DU.

The F1 Setup procedure may exchange application level data needed forthe DU and the CU to correctly interoperate on the F1 interface (e.g.CU-DU interface). This procedure may be the first F1AP proceduretriggered after the TNL association becomes operational. The proceduremay use non-wireless device associated signaling. This procedure mayerase existing application level configuration data in the nodes and mayreplace it by the one received. CU overload state information may becleared at the DU. If the DU and CU do not agree on retaining thewireless device contexts, this procedure may re-initialize the F1APwireless device-related contexts and may erase related signalingconnections in the nodes.

Paging occasion (PO) may comprise multiple time slots (e.g. subframes orOFDM symbols). Multiple time slots may enable transmission of pagingusing a different set of DL Tx beam(s) in each time slot and/or mayenable repetition. Paging transmissions using multiple DL Tx beams maybe enabled. For paging in multi-beam operation, beam sweeping may besupported for paging. For paging channel design for RRC idle stateand/or RRC inactive state, paging messages may be scheduled by DCI (e.g.physical layer control message) carried by PDCCH and/or may betransmitted in an associated wireless network-PDSCH. For paging inmulti-beam operation, beam sweeping may be performed in paging occasion.

FIG. 18A shows an example 1800 of paging transmission using Tx beamsweeping in PO which may comprise multiple time slots. The example 1800includes a paging DRX cycle 1810 with one or more PO. A PO may compriseone or more paging time slots 1812. The paging time slots 1812 may becontiguous. A PO may comprise one or more non-contiguous paging timeslots 1814. Paging messages may be transmitted in each time slot usingone or more Tx beams. The Tx beams used in each time slot may bedistinct. Time slots in PO where paging may be transmitted may beconsecutive. Paging may be transmitted in a time slot designated forpaging using one or more Tx beams. Tx beam(s) used in each time slotdesignated for paging may be distinct. Paging may be transmitted in eachtime slot (designated for paging) using one or more Tx beams. FIG. 18Bshows an example 1850 of a paging transmission using Tx beam sweepingand TX beam repetition in PO. Example 1850 comprises a DRX cycle 1860having one or more PO. A PO may comprise one or more paging time slots1862. Each paging time slot 1862 may be associated with at least onetransmit beam. One or more paging time slot 1862 may be associated withone or more Rx beams. Example 1850 comprises Rx Beam 1 associated withTx Beams 1-6 in time slots 0-5 and Rx Beam 2 associated with Tx Beams1-6 in time slots 6-11. Tx beams may be repeated to enable Rx beamsweeping. Example 1850 comprises 6 Tx beams at the base station and 2 Rxbeams at the wireless device. However, any number of beams may beutilized as appropriate.

An advantage of repetition of paging transmission from each Tx beam toenable Rx beam sweeping may be that wireless device may not need to wakeup before the PO for Rx beam sweeping. However, repetition of pagingtransmission from each Tx beam to enable Rx beam sweeping may beexpensive in terms of paging overhead. Additionally, different wirelessdevices may have different Rx beam capability that may complicate thedesign of PO, such as POs with different number of time slots andmapping of POs to wireless devices depending on wireless device Rx beamcapability. It may be preferred that, for paging in multi-beamoperation, only Tx beam sweeping may be performed in PO. Repetition ofpaging transmission from each Tx beam to enable Rx beam sweeping maylead to increase signaling overhead. Wireless devices may have differentRx beam capability. This may complicate the design of PO, for example ifpaging transmission from each Tx beam is repeated to enable Rx beamsweeping. For paging in multi-beam operation, Tx beam sweeping may beperformed in paging occasion. Paging transmission from each Tx beam maynot repeated for Rx beam sweeping at wireless device.

To receive a paging message transmitted using beam sweeping, a wirelessdevice may monitor a number of time slots for paging. PO may compriseseveral time slots for Tx beam sweeping. This may lead to increasedwireless device's power consumption. Monitoring multiple time slots inPO may lead to increased wireless device's power consumption. Wirelessdevice power consumption may be reduced if the wireless device maydetermine an acceptable DL Tx beam using the broadcast signals, such asPSS/SSS/PBCH, and/or monitor a time slot in PO corresponding to theacceptable DL Tx beam. As the wireless device may monitor broadcastsignals to check if the wireless device is in the same cell, determiningthe acceptable DL Tx beam may not lead to additional complexity atwireless device.

To determine the time slot corresponding to acceptable DL Tx beam, thewireless device may utilize the mapping between one or more DL Tx beamsand time slots in PO. Mapping between one or more DL Tx beams and timeslots in PO may be implicit. The sequence in which DL Tx beams may beused for transmission of wireless network-PSS/SSS/BCH may be samesequence in which DL Tx beams may be used for transmission of pagingmessage in PO. A wireless device may only monitor a time slotcorresponding to a acceptable DL Tx beam. For example, if the suitableDL Tx beam is Tx5, the wireless device may monitor only time slot S4,corresponding to the Tx5, for receiving paging. Mapping between one ormore DL Tx beams and time slots in PO may be explicit signaled viasystem information. The wireless device may not need to monitor all timeslots in paging occasion for receiving paging message. The wirelessdevice may monitor the time slot in PO corresponding to its acceptableDL Tx beam. Mapping between the time slots in paging occasion and DL Txbeams may be explicitly or implicitly signaled to wireless device.

A wireless device may or may not support Rx beamforming. The wirelessdevice may determine an Rx beam for receiving paging in PO for exampleif the wireless device supports multiple Rx beams. The wireless devicemay wake up in advance before the PO to monitor the broadcast signals,perform Rx beam sweeping, and/or determine a acceptable Rx beam, forexample, if wireless device has N Rx beams and paging is transmittedusing a Tx beam. The wireless device may use this Rx beam to receivepaging in PO.

A base station may serve a wireless device via one or more cells. Thebase station may transmit and/or receive transport blocks (e.g. controlsignaling transport blocks and/or data signaling transport blocks) toand/or from the wireless device via radio resources of the one or morecells. The one or more cells may comprise a first cell. The base stationmay configure one or more beams of the first cell to serve the wirelessdevice. The one or more beams may comprise one or more channel stateinformation-reference signal (CSI-RS) beams and/or one or moresynchronization signal (SS) beams. The one or more beams may comprise afirst beam. The first beam may be a CSI-RS beam or an SS beam.

The base station may transmit, to the wireless device, beamconfiguration parameters for the one or more beams. The beamconfiguration parameters may be transmitted via at least one radioresource control (RRC) message (e.g. an RRC connection reconfigurationmessage, an RRC reconfiguration message, an RRC setup message, an RRCreestablishment message, an RRC resume message), at least one mediumaccess control (MAC) layer message (e.g. a MAC control element), and/orat least one physical layer message (e.g. a downlink control indication(DCI)). The wireless device may measure beam quality (e.g. RSRP, RSRQ,and/or the like) of the one or more beams, and/or may report measurementresults of beam quality of at least one of the one or more beams to thebase station. The wireless device may use at least one of the one ormore beams to transmit transport blocks (e.g. for control signalingand/or for data signaling). The wireless device may use at least one ofthe one or more beams to receive transport blocks (e.g. for controlsignaling and/or for data signaling).

The base station may receive, from the wireless device, one or morerandom access (RA) preambles via at least one of the one or more beams.The base station may transmit, to the wireless device, one or more RAresponse (RAR) messages via at least one of the one or more beams. Atleast one of the one or more beams may be chosen by the base stationand/or the wireless device through a beam refinement procedure.

The base station may transmit, to the wireless device, a first messageindicating an RRC connection release of the wireless device. The firstmessage may be an RRC connection release message (e.g. an RRC releasemessage). The first message may be transmitted via at least one of theone or more beams. The RRC connection release of the wireless device maybe initiated by the base station for a variety of factors, such as noactivity of the wireless device, congestion of the base station, systemerror, a release indication (e.g. a UE context release message) from theCNE, and/or the like. The RRC connection release of the wireless devicemay be initiated from a core network entity (e.g. AMF, MME, and/or thelike) for a variety of factors, such as no activity of the wirelessdevice, congestion of the core network entity, congestion of one or morecore network entity like SMF or UPF, system error, a request from thewireless device via a NAS message, and/or the like.

FIG. 15 shows an example 1500 of a paging message in a cell. A basestation may have one or more cells. In example 1500, the base stationhas three cells, Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3. Each of the cells has oneor more beams. Each cell in example 1500 comprises four beams. The cellsand beams may provide wireless coverage to a geographic area. A wirelessdevice may be located in a cell and receive signals via a beam withinthe cell. Example 1500 comprises a wireless device located in Cell 2 andreceiving signals from Beam 3. The base station may communicate with acore network entity, such as an AMF. The base station may send messages1510 to the core network entity and receive messages 1512 sent by thecore network entity. The messages 1510 may comprise a wireless devicecontext release request and/or a complete message comprising a cell ID(e.g. Cell 2) for at least one cell and at least one beam index (e.g.Beam 3). The messages 1512 may comprise a paging message based on thecell ID and/or the at least one beam index.

The base station may transmit, to the core network entity, a wirelessdevice context release request message indicating a request of releasingwireless device contexts, for the wireless device, related to aninterface connection (e.g. an NG connection, an N2 connection, an N3connection, an S1 connection, and/or the like) between the base stationand the core network entity (e.g. control-plane core network entity)and/or between the base station and a user-plane core network entity(e.g. UPF, SMF, serving gateway, and/or the like), for example, if theRRC connection release is initiated by the base station. The wirelessdevice context release request message may be transmitted aftertransmitting the first message to the wireless device. Based on thewireless device context release request message, the base station mayreceive a response message for the wireless device context releaserequest message from the core network entity. The response message maybe a wireless device context release command message. Based on theresponse message, the base station may transmit, to the core networkentity, a wireless device context release complete message indicating acomplete of release the wireless device contexts of the wireless device.

Communicating with the core network entity via the wireless devicecontext release request message, the wireless device context releasecommand message, and/or the wireless device context release completemessage, the base station may release the wireless device contexts ofthe wireless device. The wireless device context release request messageor the wireless device context release complete message may be a secondmessage. The wireless device context release request message may bedefined with a different name as a message indicating a request ofreleasing wireless device contexts, for the wireless device, related toan interface connection between the base station and the core networkentity and/or between the base station and a user-plane core networkentity. The wireless device context release complete message may bedefined with a different name as a message indicating a complete ofrelease the wireless device contexts of the wireless device.

The base station may receive a wireless device context release commandmessage from the core network entity, for example, if the RRC connectionrelease is initiated from the core network entity. Based on the wirelessdevice context release command message, the base station may transmit,to the core network entity, a wireless device context release completemessage indicating a complete of release the wireless device contexts ofthe wireless device. The base station may release the wireless devicecontexts of the wireless device by communicating with the core networkentity via the wireless device context release command message and/orthe wireless device context release complete message. The wirelessdevice context release complete message may be transmitted aftertransmitting the first message to the wireless device. The first messagemay be transmitted to the wireless device based on receiving thewireless device context release command message from the core networkentity.

The wireless device context release complete message may be a secondmessage. The wireless device context release complete message may bedefined with a different name as a message indicating a complete ofrelease the wireless device contexts of the wireless device, related toan interface connection between the base station and the core networkentity, and/or between the base station and a user-plane core networkentity.

An interface (e.g. N2 and/or S1) message transmitted from the basestation to the core network entity may be a second message, wherein themessage comprising one or more configuration parameters for the wirelessdevice. The second message (e.g. the wireless device context releaserequest message, the wireless device context release complete message,the NG interface message, and/or the like) may comprise pagingassistance information elements (IEs) comprising at least one of a firstcell identifier of the first cell, a first beam index of the first beamof the first cell, a first time duration that the wireless device stayedat the first beam, and/or the like. The second message may comprise atleast one of one or more cell identifiers of one or more cells of thebase station, one or more beam indexes of the one or more beams of thefirst cell, one or more time durations that the wireless device stayedat the one or more beams, and/or the like. The first cell identifier maybe a global cell identifier (e.g. NG-CGI, ECGI, 5G-CGI, and/or thelike), a physical cell identifier (e.g. PCI), a cell identifier uniquein a PLMN, a tracking area, a registration area, a base station, a basestation DU, and/or the like.

The first beam index may comprise a CSI-RS index, for example, if thefirst beam is a CSI-RS beam. The first beam index may comprise an SSindex, for example, if the first beam is an SS beam. The one or morebeam indexes may be CSI-RS indices, for example, if the one or morebeams are CSI-RS beams. The one or more beam indices may be SS indices,for example, if the one or more beams are SS beams. At least first oneof the one or more beams may be a CSI-RS beam, and/or at least secondone of the one or more beams may be a SS beam. The first beam may be adownlink beam and/or an uplink beam.

The second message may comprise one or more SS indices of one or more SSbeams corresponding to at least one of the one or more beams, forexample, if the one or more beams are CSI-RS beams. Coverage areas ofthe one or more SS beams may cover the coverage area of the one or morebeams. The second message may comprise one or more candidate beamindices of one or more candidate beams that the wireless device may moveto, for example, during its RRC idle state and/or RRC inactive state.The second message may comprise one or more cell identifier of one ormore cells serving the one or more candidate beams.

The first beam may be a CSI-RS beam or an SS beam (lastly or recently)used to serve the wireless device. The base station may transmittransport blocks to the wireless device via the first beam (e.g. CSI-RSbeam or SS beam) and/or may receive transport blocks from the wirelessdevice via the first beam (e.g. CSI-RS beam or SS beam). The basestation may determine the first beam based on one or more measurementreport received from the wireless device. The base station may send thefirst beam identifier of the first beam to the core network entity viathe second message, for example, if the base station determines that thequality of the first beam for the wireless device meets a qualitythreshold such as RSRP, RSRQ, and/or the like. The first beam may notserve the wireless device before releasing the wireless device contextsof the wireless device.

The paging assistance IEs may further comprise a first time durationthat the wireless device stayed at the first beam if the wireless devicehas stayed at the first beam. The first time duration may indicate atime duration value (e.g. absolute time duration value such as seconds,minutes, hours, days, and/or the like; and/or a relative time durationindication such as short, medium, long, and/or the like), for example,during which the wireless device may have stayed at the first beamand/or was served via the first beam. The first time duration may bedetermined as a time duration between the first transport blocktransmission/reception, the first signaling via the first beam for thewireless device and the last transport block transmission/reception,and/or the last signaling via the first beam for the wireless device.

The paging assistance IEs may further comprise a time at which the basestation communicated with the wireless device. The time may correspondto the base station and/or the core network entity determining (orestimating) whether the wireless device will still stay at the firstbeam, at the one or more beams, and/or at the first cell.

The core network entity may initiate a paging procedure for the wirelessdevice based at least one the paging assistance IEs. The pagingprocedure may be initiated, for example, if the core network entityreceives a downlink data notification from a user plane core networkentity (e.g. SMF, UPF, serving gateway, and/or the like). The pagingprocedure may be initiated for other system causes, such as to transmita notification (e.g. control signaling, user plane data, and/or controlplane data) for one or more configuration update for the wirelessdevice. For the initiating a paging procedure, the core network entitymay send a paging message to one or more base stations in a trackingarea and/or a registration area of the wireless device. The core networkentity may send a paging message to the base station based at least onthe paging assistance IEs received from the base station. The corenetwork entity may send a paging message only to the base station basedon the paging assistance lEs if it determines (e.g. based on a timeduration since receiving the paging assistance IEs from the basestation) that the wireless device may stay at a service area of the basestation, for example, in a coverage area of the first cell, in acoverage area of the first beam, in one or more coverage area of the oneor more beams. The core network entity may determine that the wirelessdevice may stay at the service area of the base station based on one ormore wireless device type information of the wireless device receivedfrom the wireless device or from a wireless device subscriptioninformation control network entity. The core network entity maydetermine that the wireless device may stay at the service area of thebase station based on the first time duration of the paging assistanceIEs and/or one or more time duration, of the paging assistance IEs, forexample, during which the wireless device may have stayed at the one ormore beams.

The base station may receive, from the core network entity, a firstpaging message for the wireless device. The first paging message maycomprise a wireless device identifier of the wireless device and pagingassistance data. The paging assistance data may comprise at least one ofthe first cell identifier of the first cell of one or more recommendedcells for paging, at least one first beam index of at least one firstbeam of the first cell, and/or a time duration that the wireless devicestayed at one of the at least one first beam. At least one first beammay comprise the first beam and/or the one or more beams of the pagingassistance IEs. The at least one first beam index may indicate the atleast one first beam (e.g. at least one downlink beam and/or at leastone uplink beam) corresponding to the first beam (e.g. downlink oruplink beam). The at least one first beam index may comprise the firstbeam index of the first beam and/or the one or more beam indexes of theone or more beams. One or more elements of the paging assistance datamay be determined based on the paging assistance IEs that the corenetwork entity received from the base station. One or more elements ofthe paging assistance data may be of the paging assistance lEs. The atleast one first beam index may comprise at least one of a first CSI-RSindex and/or a first SS index.

Based on receiving the first paging message, the base station maydetermine at least one second beam for the paging based at least on thepaging assistance data. The at least one second beam may comprise the atleast one first beam. The at least one second beam may comprise thefirst beam of the first cell. The at least one second beam (e.g.downlink beam) may comprise at least one beam corresponding to the firstbeam (e.g. uplink or downlink beam) of the first cell. The at least onesecond beam may be of the first cell. The base station may take intoaccount the time duration that the wireless device stayed at one of theat least one first beam, for example, if the base station determines theat least one second beam. The base station may determine that thewireless device may stay at the first cell for paging the wirelessdevice, for example, if the time duration is longer than a threshold.

The paging assistance data may further comprise the time (e.g., timeduration (for example, 2400 secs or any other time) since the wirelessdevice context release, the RRC connection release, and/or the RRCrelease of the wireless device) (e.g., absolute time value (for example,8 h 35 m 21 s today or any other time) at the time of the wirelessdevice context release, the RRC connection release, and/or the RRCrelease of the wireless device) at which the base station communicatedwith the wireless device. The base station may use the time to determine(or estimate) whether the wireless device will still stay at the firstbeam, at the one or more beams, and/or at the first cell. The basestation may transmit a second paging message via all cells and all beamsof the base station, for example, if a time duration longer than athreshold has passed. Based on the time duration passed since the timeat which the base station communicated with the wireless device, thebase station may determine an area for paging.

The base station may determine, at least based on the paging assistancedata, a paging area to transmit a second paging message, such as whetherthe base station transmits a second paging message via only the firstbeam of the first cell, via only the one or more beams of the firstcell, via only the at least one second beam, via only the at least onefirst beam, via only a coverage area of the first cell, via a wholeservice area of the base station, via some beams of the first cell, viasome cells of the base stations, via a tracking area of the wirelessdevice, via a registration area of the wireless device, and/or the like.

Based on determining the paging area to transmit a paging message forthe wireless device, the base station may transmit a second pagingmessage (e.g. paging occasion) via the paging area. Based on determiningthe at least one second beam, the base station may transmit a secondpaging message via the at least one second beam. The at least one secondbeam may be an CSI-RS beam or an SS beam. The at least one second beammay be at least one of sweeping beams of the first cell. The at leastone second beam may comprise the first beam. The second paging messagemay be a paging occasion and/or a paging indication. The second pagingmessage may be transmitted via a radio resource configured for pagingfor each beam. At a beam of the at least one second beam, a paging timeslot may be used to transmit the second paging message (e.g. pagingoccasion). The base station may transmit the second paging message onlyvia the paging area, and/or only via the at least one second beam.

The wireless device may transmit a random access preamble to the basestation, for example, if the wireless device receives the second pagingmessage transmitted only via the paging area, and/or only via the atleast one second beam. The base station may increase an area for pagingof the wireless device, for example, if the base station does notreceive a random access preamble based on the second paging message in athreshold time duration. The base station may transmit the third pagingmessage via all beams of the first cell or via all cell of the basestation if it fails in paging the wireless device with the second pagingmessage. The base station may transmit the third paging message via acoverage area of the first cell, via a whole service area of the basestation, via some beams of the first cell, via some cells of the basestations, via a tracking area of the wireless device, via a registrationarea of the wireless device, and/or the like, for example if the basestation fails in paging the wireless device with the second pagingmessage.

FIG. 16 shows an example of paging. Example 1600 comprises, at time1610, a base station sending a message to a wireless device. The messagemay be a RRC connection release message. At time 1612, the base stationmay send a message to a central network entity, such as an AMF. Themessage may comprise a wireless device context release request orwireless device context release complete message. The message maycomprise at least one beam index. At time 1614, the central networkentity may send a message to the base station. The message may comprisea paging message. The paging message may comprise the at least one beamindex. At time 1616, the base station may send a paging message to thewireless device. The paging message may be sent to the wireless deviceon the at least one beam identified by the at least one beam index. Attime 1618, the wireless device and/or base station may communicate witheach other, for example, during a random access procedure.

A base station may transmit, to a wireless device, a first messageindicating a radio resource control (RRC) connection release of thewireless device. The base station may release a context of the wirelessdevice based on the RRC connection release of the wireless device. Thebase station may send, to a core network entity, a second messageindicating a wireless device context release for the wireless devicebased on releasing the context. The second message may comprise pagingassistance information elements (IEs) comprising at least one of a firstcell identifier of a first cell, a first beam index of a first beam ofthe first cell, and/or a first time duration that the wireless devicestayed at the first beam. The base station may receive, from the corenetwork entity, a paging message based at least on the paging assistanceIEs. The beam index may comprise at least one of a channel stateinformation-reference signal (CSI-RS) index and/or a synchronizationsignal (SS) index. The base station may determine the first beam basedat least on a CSI-RS beam (lastly) used to serve the wireless device, aSS beam (lastly) used to serve the wireless device, and/or a measurementreport received from the wireless device.

A base station may receive, from a core network entity, a first pagingmessage for a wireless device. The first paging message may comprise awireless device identifier of the wireless device and/or pagingassistance data. The paging assistance data may comprise at least one ofa first cell identifier of a first cell of one or more recommended cellsfor paging, at least one first beam index of at least one first beam ofthe first cell, and/or a time duration that the wireless device stayedat one of the at least one first beam. The base station may determine,based on the first paging message, at least one second beam for thepaging based at least on the paging assistance data. The base stationmay transmit a second paging message via (only) the at least one secondbeam. The base station may receive, from the wireless device, a randomaccess (RA) preamble based on the second paging message. The at leastone first beam index may comprise at least one of a first channel stateinformation-reference signal (CSI-RS) index and/or a firstsynchronization signal (SS) index.

FIG. 17 shows an example of paging. Example 1700 comprises, at time1710, a central base station (CU) sending a message to a distributedbase station (DU) The message may be a RRC connection release message.At time 1712, the DU may send a message to the wireless device. Themessage may be the RRC connection release message. At time 1714, the DUmay send a message to the CU. The message may comprise a wireless devicecontext release request or wireless device context release completemessage. The message may comprise at least one beam index. At time 1716,the CU may send a message to a central network entity, such as an AMF.The message may comprise the wireless device context release request orwireless device context release complete message. The message maycomprise the at least one beam index. At time 1718, the central networkentity may send a message to the CU. The message may comprise a pagingmessage. The paging message may comprise the at least one beam index. Attime 1720, the CU may send a paging message to the DU. The pagingmessage may be a RAN paging message originating from the CU and/or acore paging message originating from the central network entity. Thepaging message may be based on and/or comprise the at least one beamindex. At time 1722, a paging message may be sent from the DU to thewireless device. The paging message may be sent to the wireless deviceon the at least one beam identified by the at least one beam index. Attime 1724, the wireless device and/or DU may communicate with eachother, for example, during a random access procedure.

A base station may comprise a base station central unit (CU) and one ormore base station distributed units (DUs). A base station DU of the oneor more base station DUs may serve at least one cell (e.g. the firstcell). The base station CU may provide at least a radio resource control(RRC) functionality and/or a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)layer functionality. The base station DU may provide at least a radiolink control (RLC) layer functionality, a medium access control (MAC)layer functionality, and/or a physical (PHY) layer functionality.

An F1 interface (e.g. a logical direct interface) may be setup betweenthe base station CU and the base station DU. The F1 interface maycomprise a user plane interface and/or a control plane interface. RRCmessages may be transmitted from the base station CU to a wirelessdevice or from a wireless device to the base station CU via the basestation DU. Data packets may be transmitted from the base station CU toa wireless device or from a wireless device to the base station CU viathe base station DU. Data packets transmitted over the F1 interface maybe PDCP layer packets. RRC messages transmitted over the F1 interfacemay be conveyed by an F1 interface message, and/or the RRC messagesconveyed by the F1 interface message may be one or more PDCP layerpackets associated with one or more signaling radio bearers.

A base station DU may transmit, to a wireless device, one or more beamconfiguration parameters of at least one beam (e.g. CSI-RS beam and/orSS beam) of a first cell. The base station DU may receive, from a basestation CU, an RRC message (e.g. an RRC connection reconfigurationmessage, an RRC reconfiguration message, an RRC setup message, an RRCreestablishment message, an RRC resume message) comprising the one ormore beam configuration parameters, and/or may forward/transmit the RRCmessage to the wireless device. The base station DU may transmit the oneor more beam configuration parameters via at least one medium accesscontrol (MAC) layer message (e.g. a MAC control element) and/or at leastone physical layer message (e.g. a downlink control indication (DCI)).The one or more beam configuration parameters may comprise a first beamindex of a first beam of the at least one beam. The first beam may be aCSI-RS beam or an SS beam. The base station DU may receive, from thewireless device, transport blocks via the first beam. The base stationDU may transmit, to the wireless device, transport blocks via the firstbeam. The base station DU may receive, from the wireless device,transport blocks via the first beam. The base station DU may receive,from a base station CU, a first message indicating a wireless deviceradio resource release (e.g. wireless device context release; e.g. a UEcontext release message and/or a UE context release command message) forthe wireless device. The first message may be transmitted for an RRCstate transition of the wireless device from an RRC connected state toan RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state. The base station DU maysend, to the base station CU based on the first message, a secondmessage indicating a wireless device radio resource release completion(e.g. UE context release request and/or UE context release complete) forthe wireless device. The second message comprising at least one of afirst cell identifier of the first cell, a first beam index of the firstbeam, and/or a first time duration that the wireless device stayed atthe first beam. The second message may be a UE context release requestmessage and/or a UE context release complete message. The second messagemay comprise the paging assistance IEs (e.g. transmitted from the basestation to the CNE).

The base station DU may forward, to the wireless device, an RRCconnection release message (e.g. an RRC release message) received fromthe base station CU. The RRC connection release message may indicate, tothe wireless device, an RRC state transition towards an RRC idle stateand/or an RRC inactive state. The RRC connection release message may beassociated with the first message and/or the second message.

The base station DU may forward, to the wireless device, an RRCconnection suspend message received from the base station CU. The RRCconnection suspend message may indicate, to the wireless device, an RRCstate transition towards an RRC inactive state. The RRC connectionrelease message may be associated with the first message and/or thesecond message. For RRC connection suspend, the base station DU may keepwireless device context parameters at least for an F1 connection for thewireless device, such as radio bearer configuration parameters, logicalchannel configuration parameters, security parameters, and/or the like.The base station CU may keep wireless device context parameters at leastfor an F1 connection for the wireless device, such as radio bearerconfiguration parameters, logical channel configuration parameters,security parameters, and/or the like, for example for RRC connectionsuspend.

The base station CU may transmit, to a core network entity (e.g. via aUE context release request message and/or a UE context release completemessage; via N2/S1 interface), one or more elements (e.g. the pagingassistance IEs) of the second message, such as a first cell identifierof the first cell, a first beam index of the first beam, and/or a firsttime duration that the wireless device stayed at the first beam. Thecore network may use the one or more elements for a core network pagingfor the wireless device.

The base station DU may receive, from the base station CU, a pagingmessage configured based at least on the one or more elements of thesecond message. The paging message may be an RAN paging message (e.g.initiated by the base station CU or a neighbor base station) or a corenetwork paging message (e.g. initiated from a core network entity). Thepaging message may comprise the paging assistance data. The base stationCU may transmit the RAN paging message in response to receiving dataand/or control signaling (e.g. downlink NAS message) for the wirelessdevice; after or in response to receiving a RAN paging message from aneighboring base station (e.g. an anchor base station for the wirelessdevice in the RRC inactive state); and/or to transition an RRC state ofthe wireless device to an RRC connected state. The base station CU maytransmit the core network paging message after or in response toreceiving a core paging message from the CNE. The paging message maycomprise at least one of the first cell identifier, the first beamindex, and/or the first time duration, for example, during which thewireless device may have stayed at the first beam.

The wireless device context release may comprise releasing one or moreradio resources configured for the wireless device and/or keeping one ormore parameters for at least one packet flow of the wireless device.

A base station DU may receive, from a base station CU, a first pagingmessage for a wireless device. The first paging message may comprise awireless device identifier of the wireless device and/or pagingassistance data comprising at least one of: a first cell identifier of afirst cell of one or more recommended cells for paging and/or at leastone first beam index of at least one first beam of the first cell. Thefirst paging message may be for an RAN paging (e.g. initiated by a basestation) for the wireless device in an RRC inactive state or for a corenetwork paging (e.g. initiated by the core network entity) for thewireless device in an RRC idle state. The at least one first beam may bea CSI-RS beam or SS beam.

The base station CU may determine one or more elements of the pagingassistance data based on a beam via which the wireless devicetransmitted a random access preamble. The base station CU may determineone or more elements of the paging assistance data based on ameasurement report received from the wireless device, for example,during an RRC connected state of the wireless device. The measurementreport may comprise received signal qualities of one or more CSI-RSbeams and/or one or more SS beams, such as RSRP, RSRQ, average RSRP,average RSRQ, and/or the like.

The base station CU may determine to transmit the paging message to thebase station DU based on a time duration since receiving the pagingassistance IEs from the base station DU. The base station CU maydetermine the paging assistance data based on the paging assistance IEsreceived from the base station DU and/or a time duration since receivingthe paging assistance IEs from the base station DU.

The base station CU may determine one or more elements of the pagingassistance data based on one or more beams via which the base stationmay transmit transport packets to the wireless device and/or may receivetransport packets from the wireless device. The base station CU maydetermine the paging assistance data (e.g. transmitted to the basestation DU) based on the paging assistance lEs received from the basestation DU. The at least one first beam may be of the one or more beamsand/or may be an adjacent beam of the one or more beams. The basestation CU may determine one or more elements of the paging assistancedata based on one or more reported beam indexes of one or more reportedbeams that the base station CU received from the base station DU, forexample, if an RRC state of the wireless device is changed to an RRCinactive state or an RRC idle state. The base station CU may determineone or more elements of the paging assistance data based on one or morereceived beam indexes that the base station CU received from a corenetwork entity via a core network paging message for a core networkpaging procedure for the wireless device. The base station CU maydetermine one or more elements of the paging assistance data based onone or more second received beam indexes that the base station CUreceived from a neighboring base station via an RAN paging message foran RAN paging procedure for the wireless device.

The base station DU may transmit, based on the first paging message, asecond paging message via (e.g. only) the at least one first beam basedat least on the paging assistance data. The second paging message may befor an RAN paging or a core network paging for the wireless device.Based on the second paging message, the base station DU may receive arandom access preamble from the wireless device. The base station DU mayincrease an area for paging of the wireless device for example if thebase station DU does not receive a random access preamble based on thesecond paging message in a threshold time duration. The base station DUmay transmit the third paging message via all beams and/or via multiplebeams of the first cell and/or via all cells of the base station DU, forexample, if it fails in paging the wireless device with the secondpaging message (e.g., if the base station DU does not receive a randomaccess preamble from the wireless device in a threshold time period).

The base station DU may report the failure to the base station CU and/orthe base station CU may increase an area for paging of the wirelessdevice, for example, if the base station DU does not receive a randomaccess preamble based on the second paging message in a threshold timeduration. The base station CU may transmit the third paging message viaall beams of all cell of the base station CU, for example, if it failsin paging the wireless device with the second paging message.

A wireless device may be a static device (e.g. a fixed sensor device, afixed controlled device a V2X infrastructure, a traffic light,manufacturing equipment, an IoT device, etc.) and/or a semi-staticdevice (e.g. a nomadic device, a slowly moving device, a device movinglimited area, etc.). A base station and/or the wireless device maydetermine to transition the RRC state of the wireless device into an RRCidle state or an RRC inactive state, for example, if the wireless devicehas no data to transmit/receive. The RRC state transitioned to by thewireless device may be based on the time remaining until the next datatransmit/receive by the wireless device. If the wireless device has nodata to transmit/receive for a long period of time (e.g. for 24 hours orany other duration) and/or requires a very low battery consumption (e.g.requires 10 year battery life time or any other duration), a basestation and/or the wireless device may determine to transition to theRRC idle state. If the wireless device has no data to transmit/receivefor an intermediate period of time (e.g. for 1 hour or any otherduration) and/or requires low battery consumption (e.g. requires 6 monthbattery life time or any other duration), a base station and/or thewireless device may determine to transition to the RRC idle state.

A base station may determine that the wireless device may stay in thesame beam coverage area where the wireless device stayed at the time oftransitioning to an RRC idle state or to an RRC inactive state, forexample, if a wireless device as a static device and/or a semi-staticdevice. If a base station requires to page (e.g. wake up) the wirelessdevice (e.g. for data transmission), the base station may transmit apaging indication via only beam(s) that served the wireless device, forexample, if the wireless device transition to an RRC idle state or anRRC inactive state. In this way, the base station may save radioresources by not transmitting paging indications via unnecessary beamsand/or may reduce interference by transmitting paging indications viaunnecessary beams. Transmitting a paging indication via limited beam(s)for a static/semi-static wireless device may be enabled by sharing beaminformation (e.g. last serving beam information) between a DU and a CUand/or between a base station and a core network entity (e.g. AMF, MME).

FIG. 19 shows an example 1900 of sending paging messages. Example 1900comprises transmitting (1910) a RRC message. The RRC message may be sentby a base station to a wireless device and may comprise configurationparameters for one or more beams of a cell. Transport blocks may betransmitted and/or received (1912). The transport blocks may betransmitted and received by the base station and/or wireless device andmay be communicated via the beams. The base station may determine (1914)to release the RRC connection with the wireless device. The base stationmay determine (1914) a release of the RRC connection by transmitting aRRC release message to the wireless device, receiving a context releasecommand from a core network entity, and/or determine a connectionfailure of the wireless device. The base station may transmit (1918) acontext release message. The context release message may be sent to acore network entity. The context release message may comprise a contextrelease complete message. The context release message may comprisepaging assistance information comprising beam information of the beam(s)of the cell associated with the wireless device. The base station mayrelease (1920) the context of the wireless device. The base station mayreceive (1922) a paging message for the wireless device. The release ofthe wireless device context and the receipt of the paging message maynot be correlated in time or in action. If the paging message comprises(1924) beam information for the beams, the base station may transmit(1926) at least one paging indication via the beams identified in thebeam information. If the base station does not receive (1928) a randomaccess preamble from the wireless device or if the paging message doesnot comprise (1924) beam information, the base station may transmit(1930) a paging indication via the cell(s) of a registration area of thewireless device. In this way, the base station may determine if adisconnected wireless device may be paged based on stored beaminformation/idle state, that is, if beam information for the wirelessdevice has been stored the base station may just use the identifiedbeams (or beams in proximity) without the need to page the entire cell.

FIG. 20 shows an example 2000 of sending paging messages. Example 2000comprises transmitting (2010) context parameters of a wireless device.The context parameters may be transmitted from a core network entity toa base station. The core network entity may receive (2012) a contextrelease message for a wireless device. The context release message maybe received based on transmitting a context release command to the basestation. The context release message may be received based on aconnection failure of the wireless device. The context release messagemay be received based on a lack of data to transmit to the wirelessdevice. The core network entity may release (2014) N2 contexts of thewireless device. The contexts of the wireless device may be released bythe base station. The core network entity may determine (2016) to pagethe wireless device. The paging determination may be based on receivinga data notification for the wireless device, a control signaling totransmit to the wireless device, and/or determining to change an RRCstate of the wireless device to an RRC connected state. If the contextrelease message comprises (2018) beam information and a beam informationtimer has not expired (2020), the core network entity may transmit apaging message to the base station. The paging message may comprise thebeam information. The beam information may comprise the last servingbeams in the cell for the wireless device. If the context releasemessage does not comprise (2018) the beam information, if the beaminformation validity timer has expired (2020), and/or if the corenetwork entity does not receive (2024) a response to the paging message,a paging message may be sent to a base station(s) serving cell(s) of aregistration area. The registration area may be for the wireless device.

FIG. 21 shows an example 2100 of sending paging messages. Example 2100comprises receiving, by a DU and from a CU, a RRC message. The RRCmessage may comprise configuration parameters of beam(s) of a cell for awireless device. The DU may transmit (2112) the RRC message to awireless device. Transport blocks may be transmitted and/or received(2114) between the DU and the wireless device via one or more beams. TheDU may determine (2116) to release contexts of the wireless device. Thedetermination may be based on transmitting a context release requestmessage to the CU, receiving a context release command from the CU,and/or detecting a connection failure of the wireless device. The DU maydetermine (2118) the last serving beams of the wireless device. The DUmay transmit, to the CU, a context release message. The context releasemessage may comprise a context release request message and/or a contextrelease complete message. The context release message may comprisepaging assistance information comprising beam information of the beam(s)of the cell for the wireless device. The context of the wireless devicemay be released (2122). The DU may receive (2124), from the CU, a pagingmessage for the wireless device. The paging message may be a corenetwork paging message and/or a RAN paging message. If the pagingmessage comprises (2126) the beam information, a paging indication maybe transmitted (2128) via the indicated beams of the cell. If the DUdoes not receive (2130) a random access preamble from the wirelessdevice and/or if the paging message does not comprise (2126) the beaminformation, the DU may transmit (2132) a paging indication. The pagingindication may be transmitted for a RAN paging area if the wirelessdevice is in an inactive (e.g. RRC inactive) state. The pagingindication may be transmitted for a registration area of the wirelessdevice, for example, if the wireless device is in an idle (e.g. RRCidle) state.

FIG. 22 shows an example 2200 of sending paging messages. Example 2200comprises a CU transmitting (2210), to a DU, context parameters for awireless device. The DU may transmit (2212) a RRC message to thewireless device. The RRC message may comprise configuration parametersof beam(s) of a cell for the wireless device. The CU may receive (2214),from the DU, a context release message for the wireless device. Thecontext release message may be based on transmitting a UE contextrelease command to the DU, a connection failure of the wireless device,and/or a lack of data to transmit for the wireless device. The contextrelease message may comprise an indication of the last serving beams ofa cell for the wireless device. The CU may release (2216) F1 contexts ofthe wireless device with the DU. The CU may determine (2218) to page thewireless device. The paging may be a RAN page and/or a core network pagebased on the state of the wireless device. The determination to page thewireless device may be based on receiving data for the wireless device,having a control signaling to transmit to the wireless device, a corenetwork paging message from a core network entity, and/or adetermination to change a state of the wireless device. Changing thestate of a wireless may comprise changing from an RRC idle state or anRRC inactive state to an RRC connected state. If the context releasemessage comprised (2220) beam information and a beam informationvalidity timer has not expired (2222), a paging message may betransmitted (2224) to the DU. The paging message may comprise the beaminformation. If the context release message does not comprise (2220) thebeam information, the beam information validity timer has expired(2222), or the CU does not receive (2226) a response to the pagingmessage, a paging message may be transmitted (2228). The paging messagemay be transmitted to the DU and/or base station serving cells of a RANpaging area and/or a registration area of the wireless device.

Example 1

A method comprising: receiving, by a base station from a wireless devicevia at least one beam of a cell, one or more transport blocks;transmitting, by the base station to a core network entity, a messageindicating a context release of the wireless device, wherein the contextrelease is based on a release of a connection of the wireless device,wherein the message comprises paging assistance information elementscomprising: a cell identifier of the cell; and at least one beam indexof the at least one beam of the cell; receiving, by the base stationfrom the core network entity, a first paging message comprising: awireless device identifier of the wireless device; and the pagingassistance information elements; and transmitting, by the base stationvia the at least one beam and based on the first paging message, asecond paging message.

Example 2

The method of example 1, further comprising releasing, by the basestation and based on the release of the connection of the wirelessdevice, a context of the wireless device.

Example 3

The method of example 1, wherein the transmitting the second pagingmessage is via a radio interface.

Example 4

The method of example 1, wherein the at least one beam index comprisesat least one of: a channel state information-reference signal index; ora synchronization signal index.

Example 5

The method of example 1, wherein the release of the connection of thewireless device comprises a transmission, by the base station to thewireless device, a radio resource control connection message indicatingradio resource control connection release.

Example 6

The method of example 1, further comprising transmitting, by the basestation to the wireless device, a radio resource control connectionreconfiguration message comprising beam configuration parameters of theat least one beam.

Example 7

The method of example 1, further comprising: receiving, by the basestation from the wireless device via the at least one beam, one or morerandom access preambles; and determining, by the base station and basedon the receiving the one or more random access preambles, the pagingassistance information elements.

Example 8

The method of example 1, wherein the transmitting the message indicatingthe context release of the wireless device is via an interface betweenthe base station and the core network entity, and wherein the interfacecomprises at least one of an NG interface, an N2 interface, and an S1interface.

Example 9

The method of example 1, wherein the core network entity comprises atleast one of: an access and mobility management function; or a mobilitymanagement function.

Example 10

The method of example 1, wherein the context release of the wirelessdevice comprises at least one of: a first interface connection releaseof a first interface between the base station and a control plane corenetwork entity; or a second interface connection release of a secondinterface between the base station and a user plane core network entity.

Example 11

The method of example 1, further comprising: receiving, by the basestation from the core network entity, a command message commanding thecontext release of the wireless device; and releasing, by the basestation and based on the command message, the connection of the wirelessdevice.

Example 12

The method of example 1, further comprising: receiving, by the basestation from the core network entity, a command message commanding thecontext release of the wireless device; and transmitting, by the basestation to the core network entity and based on the command message, themessage indicating the context release of the wireless device.

Example 13

A method comprising: receiving, by a base station distributed unit froma wireless device via at least one beam of a first cell, one or moretransport blocks; receiving, by the base station distributed unit from abase station central unit, a first message indicating a context releasefor the wireless device; sending, by the base station distributed unitto the base station central unit and based on the first message, asecond message indicating a context release completion for the wirelessdevice, wherein the second message comprises: a first cell identifier ofthe first cell; and at least one beam index of the at least one beam;receiving, by the base station distributed unit from the base stationcentral unit, a paging message configured based on the second message.

Example 14

The method of example 13, further comprising: receiving, by the basestation distributed unit from the base station central unit, a secondmessage indicating a second context release of the wireless device; andtransmitting, by the base station distributed unit to the base stationcentral unit and based on the second message, a third message comprisingthe at least one beam index of the at least one beam.

Example 15

The method of example 13, further comprising: receiving, by the basestation distributed unit from the base station central unit, a pagingmessage comprising: a wireless device identifier of the wireless device;and paging assistance information elements; and transmitting, by thebase station distributed unit via the at least one beam and based on thepaging message, the paging message.

Example 16

The method of example 15, further comprising transmitting, by the basestation distributed unit, a first message to the base station centralunit prior to receiving the paging message.

Example 17

A method comprising: receiving, by a base station from a wireless devicevia a first beam of a first cell, one or more transport blocks;transmitting, by the base station to the wireless device and based onreceiving the one or more transport blocks, a first message indicating aradio resource control connection release of the wireless device;sending, by the base station to a core network entity and based on theradio resource control connection release, a second message indicating acontext release for the wireless device, wherein the second messagecomprises paging assistance information elements comprising: a firstcell identifier of the first cell; and a first beam index of the firstbeam; and receiving, by the base station from the core network entity, apaging message that is based on the paging assistance informationelements.

Example 18

The method of example 17, further comprising releasing, by the basestation and based on releasing a connection of the wireless device, acontext of the wireless device.

Example 19

The method of example 17, further comprising transmitting, by the basestation to the wireless device, a second paging message.

Example 20

The method of example 17, wherein the transmitting the second message isvia an interface between the base station and the core network entity,wherein the interface comprises at least one of an NG interface, an N2interface, or an S1 interface.

FIG. 23 shows general hardware elements that may be used to implementany of the various computing devices discussed herein, including, e.g.,the base station 401, the wireless device 406, or any other basestation, wireless device, or computing device described herein. Thecomputing device 2300 may comprise one or more processors 2301, whichmay execute instructions stored in the random access memory (RAM) 2303,the removable media 2304 (such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) drive,compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD), or floppy diskdrive), or any other desired storage medium. Instructions may also bestored in an attached (or internal) hard drive 2305. The computingdevice 2300 may also comprise a security processor (not shown), whichmay execute instructions of one or more computer programs to monitor theprocesses executing on the processor 2301 and any process that requestsaccess to any hardware and/or software components of the computingdevice 2300 (e.g., ROM 2302, RAM 2303, the removable media 2304, thehard drive 2305, the device controller 2307, a network interface 2309, aGPS 2311, a Bluetooth interface 2312, a WiFi interface 2313, etc.). Thecomputing device 2300 may comprise one or more output devices, such asthe display 2306 (e.g., a screen, a display device, a monitor, atelevision, etc.), and may comprise one or more output devicecontrollers 2307, such as a video processor. There may also be one ormore user input devices 2308, such as a remote control, keyboard, mouse,touch screen, microphone, etc. The computing device 2300 may alsocomprise one or more network interfaces, such as a network interface2309, which may be a wired interface, a wireless interface, or acombination of the two. The network interface 2309 may provide aninterface for the computing device 2300 to communicate with a network2310 (e.g., a RAN, or any other network). The network interface 2309 maycomprise a modem (e.g., a cable modem), and the external network 2310may comprise communication links, an external network, an in-homenetwork, a provider's wireless, coaxial, fiber, or hybrid fiber/coaxialdistribution system (e.g., a DOCSIS network), or any other desirednetwork. Additionally, the computing device 2300 may comprise alocation-detecting device, such as a global positioning system (GPS)microprocessor 2311, which may be configured to receive and processglobal positioning signals and determine, with possible assistance froman external server and antenna, a geographic position of the computingdevice 2300.

The example in FIG. 23 may be a hardware configuration, although thecomponents shown may be implemented as software as well. Modificationsmay be made to add, remove, combine, divide, etc. components of thecomputing device 2300 as desired. Additionally, the components may beimplemented using basic computing devices and components, and the samecomponents (e.g., processor 2301, ROM storage 2302, display 2306, etc.)may be used to implement any of the other computing devices andcomponents described herein. For example, the various componentsdescribed herein may be implemented using computing devices havingcomponents such as a processor executing computer-executableinstructions stored on a computer-readable medium, as shown in FIG. 23.Some or all of the entities described herein may be software based, andmay co-exist in a common physical platform (e.g., a requesting entitymay be a separate software process and program from a dependent entity,both of which may be executed as software on a common computing device).

One or more features of the disclosure may be implemented in acomputer-usable data and/or computer-executable instructions, such as inone or more program modules, executed by one or more computers or otherdevices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor ina computer or other data processing device. The computer executableinstructions may be stored on one or more computer readable media suchas a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid statememory, RAM, etc. The functionality of the program modules may becombined or distributed as desired. The functionality may be implementedin whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such asintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and thelike. Particular data structures may be used to more effectivelyimplement one or more features of the disclosure, and such datastructures are contemplated within the scope of computer executableinstructions and computer-usable data described herein.

Many of the elements in examples may be implemented as modules. A modulemay be an isolatable element that performs a defined function and has adefined interface to other elements. The modules may be implemented inhardware, software in combination with hardware, firmware, wetware(e.g., hardware with a biological element) or a combination thereof, allof which may be behaviorally equivalent. For example, modules may beimplemented as a software routine written in a computer languageconfigured to be executed by a hardware machine (such as C, C++,Fortran, Java, Basic, Matlab or the like) or a modeling/simulationprogram such as Simulink, Stateflow, GNU Octave, or Lab VIEWMathScript.Additionally or alternatively, it may be possible to implement modulesusing physical hardware that incorporates discrete or programmableanalog, digital and/or quantum hardware. Examples of programmablehardware may comprise: computers, microcontrollers, microprocessors,application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs); field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs); and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs).Computers, microcontrollers, and microprocessors may be programmed usinglanguages such as assembly, C, C++ or the like. FPGAs, ASICs, and CPLDsmay be programmed using hardware description languages (HDL), such asVHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) or Verilog, which mayconfigure connections between internal hardware modules with lesserfunctionality on a programmable device. The above mentioned technologiesmay be used in combination to achieve the result of a functional module.

A non-transitory tangible computer readable media may compriseinstructions executable by one or more processors configured to causeoperations of multi-carrier communications described herein. An articleof manufacture may comprise a non-transitory tangible computer readablemachine-accessible medium having instructions encoded thereon forenabling programmable hardware to cause a device (e.g., a wirelessdevice, wireless communicator, a wireless device, a base station, andthe like) to allow operation of multi-carrier communications describedherein. The device, or one or more devices such as in a system, mayinclude one or more processors, memory, interfaces, and/or the like.Other examples may comprise communication networks comprising devicessuch as base stations, wireless devices or user equipment (wirelessdevice), servers, switches, antennas, and/or the like. A network maycomprise any wireless technology, including but not limited to,cellular, wireless, WiFi, 4G, 5G, any generation of 3GPP or othercellular standard or recommendation, wireless local area networks,wireless personal area networks, wireless ad hoc networks, wirelessmetropolitan area networks, wireless wide area networks, global areanetworks, space networks, and any other network using wirelesscommunications. Any device (e.g., a wireless device, a base station, orany other device) or combination of devices may be used to perform anycombination of one or more of steps described herein, including, e.g.,any complementary step or steps of one or more of the above steps.

Although examples are described above, features and/or steps of thoseexamples may be combined, divided, omitted, rearranged, revised, and/oraugmented in any desired manner Various alterations, modifications, andimprovements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Suchalterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part ofthis description, though not expressly stated herein, and are intendedto be within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, theforegoing description is by way of example only, and is not limiting.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: sending, by a base stationto a core network entity, paging assistance information, associated witha wireless device, that comprises: a cell identifier of a cell; and atleast one beam index of at least one beam of the cell; receiving, by thebase station from the core network entity, a first paging messagecomprising: a wireless device identifier of the wireless device; and thepaging assistance information; and sending, by the base station via theat least one beam and based on the first paging message, a second pagingmessage associated with the wireless device.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising releasing, by the base station and based on a releaseof a connection of the wireless device, a context associated with thewireless device, wherein the sending the paging assistance informationcomprises sending a message that comprises: the paging assistanceinformation and an indication indicating the context release.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the at least one beam index comprises atleast one of: a channel state information-reference signal index; or asynchronization signal index.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising sending, by the base station to the wireless device, a radioresource control connection message indicating a radio resource controlconnection release, wherein the sending the paging assistanceinformation is based on the radio resource control connection release.5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, by the basestation to the wireless device, a radio resource control connectionreconfiguration message comprising one or more beam configurationparameters of the at least one beam.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving, by the base station from the wireless device viathe at least one beam, one or more random access preambles; anddetermining, by the base station and based on receiving the one or morerandom access preambles, the paging assistance information.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the sending the paging assistance informationcomprises sending the paging assistance information via an interfacebetween the base station and the core network entity, wherein theinterface comprises at least one of: an NG interface, an N2 interface,or an S1 interface.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the core networkentity comprises at least one of: an access and mobility managementfunction (AMF) device; or a mobility management function (MMF) device.9. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending the paging assistanceinformation comprises sending a message that comprises: the pagingassistance information and an indication indicating a context releaseassociated with the wireless device, and wherein the context releaseassociated with the wireless device comprises at least one of: a firstinterface connection release of a first interface between the basestation and the core network entity; or a second interface connectionrelease of a second interface between the base station and a user planecore network entity.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving, by the base station from the core network entity, a commandmessage indicating a context release associated with the wirelessdevice; and releasing, by the base station and based on the commandmessage, a connection of the wireless device.
 11. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving, by the base station from the core networkentity, a command message indicating a context release associated withthe wireless device, wherein the sending the paging assistanceinformation comprises sending, by the base station to the core networkentity and based on the command message, a message that comprises: thepaging assistance information and an indication indicating the contextrelease.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the paging assistanceinformation comprises paging assistance information elements comprisingat least one of: the cell identifier of the cell; at least one beamidentifier; a first beam index of a first beam of the cell; a first timeduration during which the wireless device is associated with the firstbeam; or a second time duration during which the base stationcommunicated with the wireless device.
 13. A method comprising: sending,by a base station to a core network entity, a first message indicating acontext release associated with a wireless device, wherein the firstmessage comprises paging assistance information comprising: a cellidentifier of a cell; and a beam index of a beam of the cell; andwherein the sending the first message is based on at least one of: aradio resource control connection release; or an indication indicatingthe context release; and receiving, by the base station from the corenetwork entity, a paging message that is based on the paging assistanceinformation.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: receivingthe indication indicating the context release, wherein the first messagecomprises an indication indicating a context release completionassociated with the wireless device.
 15. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising: receiving, from a base station central unit, a secondmessage indicating a second context release associated with the wirelessdevice; and sending, to the base station central unit and based on thesecond message, a third message comprising the beam index of the beam.16. The method of claim 13, wherein: the paging message comprises: awireless device identifier of the wireless device; and the pagingassistance information; and the method further comprises sending, by thebase station via the beam, a second paging message.
 17. The method ofclaim 13, further comprising sending, to a base station central unit andprior to receiving the paging message, a second message.
 18. The methodof claim 13, further comprising: receiving, from the wireless device viathe beam, at least one transport block; and sending, to the wirelessdevice and based on receiving the at least one transport block, a secondmessage indicating the radio resource control connection release. 19.The method of claim 13, further comprising releasing, by the basestation and based on releasing a connection of the wireless device, acontext associated with the wireless device.
 20. The method of claim 13,wherein the sending the first message comprises sending the firstmessage via an interface between the base station and the core networkentity, wherein the interface comprises at least one of: an NGinterface, an N2 interface, or an S1 interface.
 21. A computing devicecomprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructionsthat, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computingdevice to: send, to a core network entity, paging assistance informationassociated with a wireless device, that comprises: a cell identifier ofa cell; and at least one beam index of at least one beam of the cell;receive, from the core network entity, a first paging messagecomprising: a wireless device identifier of the wireless device; and thepaging assistance information; and send, via the at least one beam andbased on the first paging message, a second paging message associatedwith the wireless device.
 22. The computing device of claim 21, whereinthe instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause thecomputing device to release, based on a release of a connection of thewireless device, a context associated with the wireless device, andwherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the computing device to send the paging assistance information bysending a message that comprises: the paging assistance information andan indication indicating the context release.
 23. The computing deviceof claim 21, wherein the at least one beam index comprises at least oneof: a channel state information-reference signal index; or asynchronization signal index.
 24. The computing device of claim 21,wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the computing device to: send, to the wireless device, a radioresource control connection message indicating a radio resource controlconnection release; and send the paging assistance information bysending, based on the radio resource control connection release, thepaging assistance information.
 25. The computing device of claim 21,wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the computing device to send, to the wireless device, a radioresource control connection reconfiguration message comprising one ormore beam configuration parameters of the at least one beam.
 26. Thecomputing device of claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed bythe one or more processors, cause the computing device to: receive, fromthe wireless device via the at least one beam, one or more random accesspreambles; and determine, based on receiving the one or more randomaccess preambles, the paging assistance information.
 27. The computingdevice of claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed by the oneor more processors, cause the computing device to send the pagingassistance information by sending the paging assistance information viaan interface between the computing device and the core network entity,wherein the interface comprises at least one of: an NG interface, an N2interface, or an S1 interface.
 28. The computing device of claim 21,wherein the core network entity comprises at least one of: an access andmobility management function (AMF) device; or a mobility managementfunction (MMF) device.
 29. The computing device of claim 21, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause thecomputing device to send the paging assistance information by sending amessage that comprises: the paging assistance information and anindication indicating a context release associated with the wirelessdevice, and wherein the context release associated with the wirelessdevice comprises at least one of: a first interface connection releaseof a first interface between the computing device and the core networkentity; or a second interface connection release of a second interfacebetween the computing device and a user plane core network entity. 30.The computing device of claim 21, wherein the instructions, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:receive, from the core network entity, a command message indicating acontext release associated with the wireless device; and release, basedon the command message, a connection of the wireless device.
 31. Thecomputing device of claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed bythe one or more processors, cause the computing device to: receive, fromthe core network entity, a command message indicating a context releaseassociated with the wireless device; and send the paging assistanceinformation by sending, to the core network entity and based on thecommand message, a message that comprises: the paging assistanceinformation and an indication indicating the context release.
 32. Thecomputing device of claim 21, wherein the paging assistance informationcomprises paging assistance information elements comprising at least oneof: the cell identifier of the cell; at least one beam identifier; afirst beam index of a first beam of the cell; a first time durationduring which the wireless device is associated with the first beam; or asecond time duration during which the computing device communicated withthe wireless device.
 33. The computing device of claim 21, wherein thecomputing device comprises at least one of: a base station; a basestation central unit; or a base station distributed unit.
 34. Acomputing device comprising: one or more processors; and memory storinginstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe computing device to: send, to a core network entity, a first messageindicating a context release associated with a wireless device, whereinthe first message comprises paging assistance information comprising: acell identifier of a cell; and a beam index of a beam of the cell; andwherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the computing device to send the first message by sending thefirst message based on at least one of: a radio resource controlconnection release; or an indication indicating the context release; andreceive, from the core network entity, a paging message that is based onthe paging assistance information.
 35. The computing device of claim 34,wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the computing device to: receive the indication indicating thecontext release, and wherein the first message comprises an indicationindicating a context release completion associated with the wirelessdevice.
 36. The computing device of claim 34, wherein the instructions,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing deviceto: receive, from a base station central unit, a second messageindicating a second context release associated with the wireless device;and send, to the base station central unit and based on the secondmessage, a third message comprising the beam index of the beam.
 37. Thecomputing device of claim 34, wherein the paging message comprises: awireless device identifier of the wireless device; and the pagingassistance information; and wherein the instructions, when executed bythe one or more processors, cause the computing device to send, via thebeam, a second paging message.
 38. The computing device of claim 34,wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the computing device to send, to a base station central unit andprior to receiving the paging message, a second message.
 39. Thecomputing device of claim 34, wherein the instructions, when executed bythe one or more processors, cause the computing device to: receive, fromthe wireless device via the beam, at least one transport block; andsend, to the wireless device and based on receiving the at least onetransport block, a second message indicating the radio resource controlconnection release.
 40. The computing device of claim 34, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause thecomputing device to release, based on releasing a connection of thewireless device, a context associated with the wireless device.
 41. Thecomputing device of claim 34, wherein the instructions, when executed bythe one or more processors, cause the computing device to send the firstmessage by sending the first message via an interface between thecomputing device and the core network entity, wherein the interfacecomprises at least one of: an NG interface, an N2 interface, or an S1interface.
 42. The computing device of claim 34, wherein the computingdevice comprises at least one of: a base station; a base station centralunit; or a base station distributed unit.